THE JFINALITY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HIGHER CRITICISM 
 
 -OR- 
 
 The Theory of Evolution 
 and False Theology 
 
 BY 
 
 
 
 WILLIAM B. RILEY, D. D. 
 
 Pastor The First Baptist Church 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 Author of " Vagaries and Verities," "The Perennial Revival, ' 
 "Messages for the Metropolis," etc.
 
 io THE. CAUSE OF TRUTH 
 
 lhl$ vtlumt It aftcthnattlj dtdicatid 
 
 COPYRIGHTED BY 
 
 W. B. RILEY,
 
 A FOREWORD. 
 
 TN publishing a volume, one should have a very 
 definite object to accomplish. Our purpose in 
 putting forth "The Finality of the Higher Criticism" 
 will appear to its every reader. 
 
 We confess to a conscious call in this publica- 
 tion, being fully persuaded that the honor of Christ 
 and the very life of His church are alike endanger- 
 ed by the doubting spirit now brooding over the 
 educational institutions of America. Is it not high 
 time the conservative and constructive ministers of 
 our country united forces for the successful defense 
 of "the faith once delivered?" 
 
 W. B. RILEY.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I. The Higher Criticism According to 
 u Higher Critics. 
 
 II. The Prominence of Skepticism in our 
 Schools. 
 
 III. The Prevalence of Skepticism in our Pul- 
 
 pits. 
 
 IV. The Theory of Evolution and False The- 
 
 ology. 
 
 V. The Sacred Scriptures Are they Scien- 
 tific? 
 
 VI. Fosterism Or the Finality of the Higher 
 Criticism. 
 
 VII. R. J. Campbell's Definition of the New 
 Theology. 
 
 VIII. Skepticism Is Satan Actually Back of 
 It? 
 
 IX. The True Scientific Spirit in Scripture 
 Study. 
 
 X. What will be the Religion of the Future ?
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM ACCORDING 
 TO HIGHER CRITICS. 
 
 "O Timothy, guard that which is committed 
 unto thee, turning away from the profane bab- 
 blings and oppositions of the knowledge which 
 is falsely so-called; which some professing, have 
 erred concerning the faith." (i Tim. 6:20). 
 This is Paul's advice to Timothy, his son and 
 colaborer in the Gospel. Pretty nearly two thous- 
 and years have passed since the Apostle penned 
 these words, and yet they are so pertinent 
 that the conservative Senior in the Gospel 
 ministry needs not to change one word when 
 warning his Junior against the skepticism of 
 those present-day scholars who assume to criti- 
 cize the Sacred Scriptures. It would be difficult 
 to conceive a more accurate description of the 
 character and custom of our self-named Critics, 
 than is found in this text. 
 
 It is our purpose in this address to give some 
 time to the consideration of Skepticism and the
 
 6 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 Scholars, and we prefer to be specific, dealing 
 with individual scholars whose names are well- 
 known, and whose positions, while unquestionably 
 critical, are not so radical as to cause repudiation 
 by their own brethren. 
 
 As a lad, hunting in the South, when a flock 
 of quails rose before me, I always shot at the 
 flock, and was greatly mystified that I so seldom 
 hit anything. Later, I learned to pick out my 
 bird, and discovered, to my surprise, that it was 
 easier to hit one than it was all of them. Admiral 
 Togo, in his naval engagement with Rojestvent- 
 sky, illustrated the advantage of selecting a tar- 
 get. His order was that the ships should be 
 sunken one at a time; and the wisdom appeared 
 in the victory won. 
 
 Recently two men, each of whom proudly as- 
 sumes the title "Higher Critic," have combined 
 their pens in putting forth a booklet entitled 
 "The Higher Criticism," in which they assume 
 to instruct the public regarding their science, 
 and to show its right to universal consideration, 
 and the comparative certainty of its eventual 
 adoption. I speak of R. S. Driver, Regius Pro- 
 fessor of Hebrew at Oxford, and A. F. Kirkpat- 
 rick, who formerly held the same office in Cam- 
 bridge. That these men are fairly content with 
 this putting of the Higher Critic's position is
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM / 
 
 evident in the fact that the booklet has passed 
 through a number of editions. 
 
 As capable and conservative representatives of 
 the school to which they belong, we propose the 
 consideration of their statements concerning "The 
 Higher Criticism" in the light of our text. 
 
 Paul's first requirement of Timothy is this 
 
 "GUARD THE SACRED SCRIPTURES." 
 
 If one runs through his epistles he will dis- 
 cover that Paul regarded nothing else "commit- 
 ted" to the Gospel ministry, comparable to "the 
 oracles of God." Writing to the Romans, he 
 speaks of the advantages the Jews enjoyed "be- 
 cause that unto them were committed the oracles 
 of God" (Romans 3 :2). Writing to the Corinth- 
 ians he recognizes the necessity of "delivering 
 that which he had also received," namely, the 
 statements of the Scriptures (i Cor. 15 :3~4). In 
 his epistle to Titus (1:3) he affirms that "God 
 had in due times manifested His word through 
 preaching, which was now "committed unto him" 
 according to the command of God our Saviour. 
 It is not likely, therefore, that he has else in 
 mind than the same sacred oracles, when he en- 
 joins Timothy to "guard that which is commit- 
 ted" unto him. His injunction to Timothy is 
 equally binding on the present Gospel ministry.
 
 8 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 At what points do we need to guard the 
 Sacred Scriptures ? 
 
 i. At the point of the truth about their text. 
 We consent with Messrs. Driver and Kirkpatrick 
 that "the aim of the Christian student is truth." 
 Let us have truth versus error; fact versus fic- 
 tion; science versus speculation. Conservatives 
 ask for no special privileges in such a contest; 
 for no compromise in that conflict. 
 
 To the conflict then! These scholars say of 
 the text of the sacred Scripture, "It is seriously 
 corrupt." ("The Higher Criticism," p. 5.) We 
 make bold to affirm that such a claim is without 
 scientific confirmation. Twenty-one hundred 
 years ago the text of the Old Testament was in 
 every essential respect what it is at this hour, 
 as one will discover who consults the Greek trans- 
 lation of that time. And, back of that day 
 greater care was exercised in the translation of 
 the text than has been shown by modern students. 
 It was the unerring law, among the ancient priests 
 and scribes to regard the slightest defect sufficient 
 to vitiate the synagogue roll ; even though it were 
 but the blurring of the letters, brought about by 
 the reverent kissing of the same, it re- 
 sulted in the condemnation of the docu- 
 ment. No less an authority than Prof. Sayce 
 affirms it as a fact that the most minute care 
 was bestowed upon the accuracy of the text;
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM Q 
 
 and the work was done with such "scrupulous 
 honesty" that in 1,500 years copies of one vol- 
 ume revealed differences but slight and unimpor- 
 tant. Those unquestioned scientists, in the whole 
 realm of Sacred Scripture Doctors Westcott and 
 Hort assert that of the many manuscripts gath- 
 ered from all over the world, written on cloth, 
 skin, parchment, papyrus, they did not essentially 
 differ one from another in more than one word 
 in a thousand. When one is made familiar with 
 this fact, he is convinced that our critics have 
 "strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel." 
 
 2. As to the claims of Authorship. Our 
 scholarly brethren Driver and Kirkpatrick tell 
 us (p. 6) "Hicher Criticism has investigated the 
 origin of the various books," and they announce 
 the result, page 20, "The historical books are 
 now seen to be not, as was once supposed, the 
 works (for instance) of Moses, or Joshua, or 
 Samuel, but are compiled out of the writings of 
 distinct and independent authors, characterized by 
 different styles and representing different points 
 of view, which were combined together and oth- 
 erwise adjusted, till they finally assumed their 
 present form." 
 
 Is that the truth ? The science of Archeology 
 contradicts the assertion. The Scriptures name 
 these very men, Moses, Joshua and Samuel, as
 
 10 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 among their authors ; and every turn of the spade 
 is giving fresh confirmation to their claims. The 
 very arguments once made against this author- 
 ship are now abandoned by the critics themselves. 
 But yesterday they were affirming that writ- 
 ing was not sufficiently developed in Moses' day 
 to make it possible for him to be the author of 
 the Pentateuch. Discoveries drove them from 
 that position; and now they claim that if Moses 
 did write anything at all, he borrowed it in the 
 main from his predecessors to have his produc- 
 tions improved and redacted. This reminds 
 one of Esop's fable of the wolf, who 
 threatened the lamb because he fed in his pas- 
 ture. When the poor little thing maintained that 
 he had never tasted grass, his mother's milk 
 having sufficed, the wolf then charged him with 
 drinking from his spring. That accusation be- 
 ing answered after the same manner, he fell 
 upon him, saying, "Anyhow I will not be cheated 
 out of my meal." 
 
 The Bible seems to be the only literary struc- 
 ture the world has yet produced after the plan 
 of the Cathedral at Milan, requiring generations 
 of workers and many centuries in laying its foun- 
 dations, perfecting its walls and completing its 
 cupolas. Men have long been surprised that 
 the name of the original architect of Milan's 
 Cathedral should have been lost, but have not
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM II 
 
 disputed that Amadeo was the author of many 
 of its most beautiful designs, nor yet that Tibaldi 
 conceived the ornamentation of doors and win- 
 dows, while Napoleon saw to its finishing 
 touches. But here we have a literary cathedral 
 beside which every other output of mind and pen 
 pales as the stars fade before the rising sun. 
 Yet the scholars would have us believe that not 
 only is the original architect an unknown one, 
 but that scarcely a man who wrought upon its 
 foundations or finial can be certainly named. If 
 that be true, it is the strangest circumstance of all 
 human history. 
 
 We are familiar with the story of how, 
 after the repulse of the great Persian invader, 
 Greece enacted a law that no one, under penalty 
 of death, should espouse art, except free men. On 
 one day all Greece was at Athens to behold an ex- 
 hibit in the Agora. Pericles presided, with As- 
 pasia at his side ; while Phidias, Socrates, Sopho- 
 cles and others acted as judges. A group far 
 more beautiful than the rest challenged universal 
 attention, and excited the envy of all artists. But 
 to the herald's repeated question, "Who is the 
 sculptor of this group?" there came no answer, 
 and the conviction settled upon them that il must 
 be the product of a slave. Amid the commotion, 
 a beautiful maiden, with torn dress and dishevel- 
 ed hair, was dragged into the Agora, and the
 
 12 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 officers cried as they came, "This woman knows 
 the sculptor." To all their questions Cleone was 
 silent. She knew that if she should speak she 
 sealed her brother's doom. When Pericles could 
 get nothing from her, he said, "The law is im- 
 perative; take the maiden to the dungeon." A 
 youth, with emaciated face and flowing hair rush 
 ed from his hiding place and cried, "Oh, Pericles, 
 forgive and save the maiden. She is my sister. 
 The group is the work of my hands, and I am 
 but a slave." The crowd cried out, "To the dun- 
 geon with him." But Pericles answered, "No, 
 behold that group! Apollo decides by it that 
 there is something higher in Greece than an un- 
 just law. The highest purpose of law should be 
 the development of the beautiful. If Athens lives 
 in the memory and affections of men, it is her 
 devotion to art that will immortalize her. Not 
 to the dungeon, but to my side bring the youth." 
 And that day the youth was crowned by Aspasia's 
 hand and his name immortalized. He had wrought 
 so great a work, that with the utmost care he 
 could not escape detection. The work itself com- 
 pelled the knowledge of him and created a place 
 in history for him. 
 
 If the conclusion of the scholars from 
 whom I have quoted is correct, we face this 
 strangest fact of history, namely, that men, the 
 authors of such institutions, such laws, and such
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 13 
 
 a religion as the world has never known beside, 
 the men who accomplished a work that only gods 
 might ever be expected to complete, did it, and 
 disappeared, leaving no name behind, not a foot- 
 print by which we can trace them to their homes ; 
 and this escape was accomplished without an 
 endeavor. Such fictitious characters as Moses, 
 Joshua, Samuel and David they have immortaliz- 
 ed, and while about it, effected, forever, a person- 
 al oblivion! What thinking man can believe it? 
 The genius of DaVinci was such that his name 
 is immortalized. Was he not musician, poet, 
 sculptor and scientist in one? How could men 
 forget him? And yet, strangely enough, the 
 scholarship of a Driver and Kirkpatrick insists 
 that the man who was the author of a Pentateuch 
 a marvel in letters, an unequalled genius in 
 organization, a statesman of the highest order, 
 a prophet whose vision swept the unborn centur- 
 ies, dropped out of history and left neither sepul- 
 cher that can be known, nor residence that can be 
 determined, nor name that can be called ? Michael 
 Angelo combined the ability of a great poet with 
 the art of a peerless painter, and the achievements 
 of an incomparable architect. No wonder men 
 remember him! But the men who wrote the 
 Psalms and Prophets gave us better poetry still, 
 painted more lasting pictures, gave form to more 
 permanent figures, and design to more abiding
 
 14 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 structures, and yet they are unknown, if Profes- 
 sors Driver and Kirkpatrick are to be accepted. 
 Who believes it ? Only he who is more anxious to 
 secure the cheap reputation of standing with the 
 scholarly than to search the pages of history 
 and investigate the conclusions of so-called 
 science. 
 
 3. Concerning the historicity of recorded 
 events. The same gentlemen, on page 6 of 
 "The Higher Criticism," say : "Historical Crit- 
 icism affirms that much of the history has 
 been colored by the beliefs and practices 
 of the times in which the books were com- 
 piled, long after the event, and must be regarded 
 as rather an ideal, than an actual picture of na- 
 tional life." And again, page 24, "In the early 
 chapters of Genesis we are not reading literal 
 history," while on page 29 they speak of "Scrip- 
 ture history" as having been "gradually shaped" 
 into its present form by "tradition." 
 
 Perhaps it is not an impertinent question, 
 "What other kind of history is there be- 
 side literal history!" Are fiction and fable 
 history? Was not A. J. F. Behrends right 
 when he spoke of idealized history as 
 "idealized nonsense?" When Mr. Ingersoll 
 was alive he often spoke of "The mistakes of 
 Moses," to the delectation of a shabby, sinful, and 
 shouting crowd. But have our scholars gone the
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 15 
 
 great infidel one better, and made it out that 
 Moses is a mistake ; that he had no existence other 
 than that of some creative imagination; that 
 Jonah was little more a real man than was some 
 hero of Ade's "Stories of the Streets and Town," 
 or Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad?" If 
 scholars reach such conclusions, let them not in- 
 sult our intelligence by turning back to us to say 
 "But all this renders the Bible no less the Word 
 of God." (See "The Higher Criticism," p. 8), 
 When we have no better basis of inspiration than 
 is found in pure fiction and distorted facts, hon- 
 esty demands that we fling from us the volume 
 that, claiming to be a Bible, can furnish no char- 
 acter and presents no more rational claims. But, 
 fortunately, the statement of these gentlemen is 
 not the shibboleth of all scholarship. Prof. Ira 
 Price, the noted archaeologist, reminds us "that 
 remains of all the principal peoples mentioned in 
 the Old Testament now decorate the cases of our 
 museums, and tons of new material are being 
 gathered in at the end of every season." He 
 remarks, "These records, chiseled in adamantine 
 volumes, stamped in perishable clay, painted in 
 the darkness of the tombs, or cut on the moun- 
 tain side, bring impartial, unimpeachable and con- 
 clusive proof of the veracity of the Old Testa- 
 ment."
 
 16 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 Paul's injunction to Timothy is this 
 
 AVOID THE FALSE SCHOLARSHIP. 
 
 "Guard that which is committed unto thee, 
 turning away from the profane babblings and op- 
 positions of the knowledge, which is falsely so- 
 called." In reading and re-reading "The Higher 
 Criticism" we have carefully inquired after the 
 marks of "false scholarship" and have found 
 three, manifesting themselves in this single pro- 
 duction. 
 
 Such scholarship is self-assertive. It lays un- 
 warranted claim to accomplishments. It does not 
 hesitate to braggartly make mention of its "as- 
 sured results," in the very same breath by which 
 it has disputed the most sacred claims of Scrip- 
 ture. Some of us thought Mrs. Eddy slightly 
 egotistical when she claimed that her writings 
 were "divine and apodictical," and slightly self- 
 assertive when she mentioned her own book ahead 
 of the Bible, as essential to the education and 
 redemption of the earth. But our Higher Critics 
 contend with her for the chief seat in the syna- 
 gogue of self-esteem. On one page our authors 
 hesitate not to say concerning the Bible, "We 
 must no longer talk of its infallibility and its in- 
 accuracy" (p. 12) ; and on another they remind 
 us of "the assured results of criticism." From 
 their standpoint the whole field of so-called Rev- 
 elation, from Genesis, 1:1 to Revelation 22:21,
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 17 
 
 "is filled with temporary and imperfect elements," 
 (p. 12), while they modestly (?) admit that their 
 well-cultivated farm of "assured results" has a 
 little "fringe of uncertainty," (p. 40), and that, 
 mark you, as a result of "the imperfection or of 
 the ambiguity of their data." (p. 41). Dr. P. S. 
 Henson Boston's inimitable orator confesses 
 that in his early youth, he was constantly distress- 
 ed as to how the world would go on in case he 
 died; but admits that maturity relieved him of 
 that concern. There is no indication in "The 
 Higher Criticism" that Brethren Driver and 
 Kirkpatrick have yet escaped apprehension upon 
 this same point, for since their scholarly research 
 has produced results so much more "sure" than 
 those of the ancient Scriptures, it would seem 
 that a premature death on the part of one, or 
 both of them, might even yet leave the world in 
 uncertain light. 
 
 A second mark of false-scholarship is seen in 
 its self-contradiction. On page 10 of "The High- 
 er Criticism" one reads. "It is ridiculous to im- 
 agine that history can be re-written by the aid of 
 a long series of unsupported guesses, however in- 
 genious," while on page 36, after affirming the 
 inspiration of the divine writers, they explain 
 their history-making as follows: "In dealing 
 with the earlier period in which no sure historical 
 recollections reached back, they are dependent
 
 l8 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 doubtless upon popular oral tradition. But pen- 
 etrated, as they were, by deep moral and religious 
 ideas, and possessing profound spiritual sensibili- 
 ties, they so fill in the outlines, furnished by tra- 
 dition, that the events or personages of antiquity 
 become spiritually significant, embody spiritual 
 lessons, or become spiritual types." A wag once 
 remarked that his chief objection to lying was that 
 it required such a good memory to make his after 
 tales hang together. Not all of the self-styled 
 scholars of the century have been blessed with 
 this mental trait of good memory. R. F. Horton, 
 one of the conservative higher critics of the old 
 world, once delivered the Yale Lectures. One day 
 he said, (Verbum Dei, p. 106), "All the great 
 poets, from Homer and Hesiod down to Browning 
 and Walt Whitman utter, in the stress of their 
 poetic arflatus, truths and feelings which we can 
 only explain by attributing them to God Himself. 
 Even those who have stained their white-winged 
 robes and thrown their heavenly crown in the 
 dust, if they are real poets, will utter things 
 which are as truly from God as the words of Ba- 
 laam or the words of the faithless prophet that 
 spake against the altar at Bethel. Goethe as a 
 man seems more Hellenic than Christian ; but 
 Goethe as a poet has said things which we can 
 only gratefully acknowledge come from God." 
 Three days later, in lecturing on "The Preacher's
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 19 
 
 Personality," Mr. Horton remarked, "I have 
 certainly spoken in vain, unless you are 
 prepared to admit that while God may 
 undoubtedly speak to men in many ways, 
 and without any human intervention at all, He 
 will not, even if He could, use evil men to be the 
 ministrants of His Word. As in the old external 
 covenant they must be pure who bare the vessels 
 of the Lord, so in the spiritual society of Christ 
 no man can see God unless he is pure in heart; 
 and no man can either receive, or deliver, the 
 Word of God unless he is inwardly cleansed." 
 When was Goethe cleansed, and how long did he 
 stay out of his wallow ? 
 
 Another has called attention to a like slip on 
 the part of the same author ( Verbum Dei, p. 107) . 
 "The unthinking- dogma of Orthodoxy that the 
 Bible as such is the Word of God," etc., and later 
 (Verbum Dei, p. 155), "The Bible itself is in so 
 unique and peculiar a sense the Word of God," 
 etc. Be true in statement or else the memory 
 will play you tricks and compel you to contradict 
 yourself. 
 
 A third mark of false-scholarship is that it is 
 purely speculative. Messrs Driver and Kirkpat- 
 rick seek to distinguish between what they call 
 "speculative" and "sober" criticism; but in one 
 place admit that even with "sober" criticism 
 "many of the conclusions are only probable." (p-9).
 
 20 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 The mistake is not a great one ; they should have 
 said, "Few of the conclusions are probable." It 
 would seem that the so-called "assured results" 
 of Higher Criticism are not even satisfying their 
 creators. Not long since, Dr. Rade, a leading ex- 
 ponent of this so-called science, declared, "Mod- 
 ' ern theology is becoming very tired in its re- 
 searches. * * * We are beginning to see before us 
 certain limitations and checks to our further 
 progress," while Pastor Steinmann, long an ar- 
 dent advocate of the method, published an article 
 in "The Christliche Welt" in which he voices his 
 fears lest the whole structure, reared by the crit- 
 ical scholars, shortly fall to pieces like "a house 
 built of cards." It is significant to say the least, 
 that so great an authority as Prof. Harnack 
 should sicken of his own speculations, and accept 
 the office of librarian, rather than continue his re- 
 searches after "assured results." All the world 
 knows, how, long since, Prof. Sayce repudiated 
 his own published conclusions, and denounced the 
 whole method as speculative, sinful and soul-de- 
 stroying. A. J. F. Behrends, one of Amer- 
 ica's most scholarly pastors, poured out his soul 
 in penitence over having been deceived by this so- 
 called science, and in turn having deceived and 
 misled others. Ah, Paul's injunction to Timothy 
 has occasion still. Let "men turn from the oppo- 
 sitions and babblings of knowledge, falsely so- 
 called."
 
 THE; HIGHER CRITICISM 21 
 
 Finally, listen to Paul's hint, of further obliga- 
 tion as a good minister of Jesus Christ, namely 
 to 
 
 DEFEND THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED. 
 
 What is that faith ? The Book itself answers. 
 Dr. William H. Bates, has recently called atten- 
 tion to the Bible's doctrine of its own inspiration, 
 and has shown that it sets up a claim clear, 
 strong, unequivocal, to the effect that it is God- 
 given, infallible, inerrant; that its integrity ex- 
 tends to history as well as to morals and religion, 
 and involves expression as well as thought. And 
 for every claim he adduces and even multiplies 
 his texts. (See "Bible Student and Teacher," 
 June, 1906.) 
 
 Christ answers that question. No man can 
 read the New Testament and doubt that to Jesus 
 of Nazareth the "faith once delivered" involved 
 the authority and integrity of the Old Testament. 
 He called the Pentateuch "the book of Moses" 
 (Mark 12:26). He read from it, and from the 
 prophets, in the synagogue. (Luke 16:29-31). He 
 reminded His auditors of the obligations involved 
 in Moses' commands. (Matthew 8:4, 19:7-8; 
 Mark 1:44; Luke 5:14). 
 
 Alexander Patterson calls attention to the cir- 
 cumstance that Jesus cites from twelve books of 
 the Old Testament and confirms the truth ol
 
 22 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 twenty-four narratives, as follows: Creation, 
 Matt. 19:14; Law of Marriage, Matt. 19:5; Cain 
 and Abel, Matt. 23 125 ; The Deluge, Matt. 24 \yj ; 
 Abraham, John 8 :56 ; Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
 Lot's wife, Luke 17:28-32; Manna, John 6:49; 
 Brazen Serpent, John 3:14; Shew Bread, Matt. 
 12:3-4; Elijah and his Miracles, Luke 4:25-26; 
 Naaman, Luke 4 \2"j ; Tyre and Sidon, Matt. 1 1 : 
 22; Jonah and "The Whale," Matt. 12:39; The 
 Books of Moses, John 5:46; The Psalms, Luke 
 20:42; Moses and the Prophets, Luke 24:27; 
 Isaiah, Matt. 13:14; Daniel's prophecies, Matt. 
 25:15; Malachi, Matt. 11:10. The entire Old 
 Testament, Luke 24 144. Of not one of these does 
 he convey the slightest hint of aught but trust- 
 worthiness and literal interpretation. It is note- 
 worthy that Christ has put the seal of his approv- 
 al upon almost every point disputed by our so- 
 called scholars. 
 
 Time also has lent its testimony to the trust- 
 worthiness of this "faith." "Of making books 
 there is no end." To make a contribution to lit- 
 erature that shall live is not so easy. P. E. Kipp 
 said truly, "Literature is ephemeral and lasts but 
 a day. Of the three million volumes in the library 
 of Paris, only a few thousand are what may be 
 said to be alive, while the vast numbers are bur- 
 ied in the dust of oblivion, and are mouldy with 
 neglect. But contrary to the universal law, time
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 23 
 
 has but polished the Bible as the ceaseless waves 
 polish the pebbles, and it is today brighter than in 
 all the thirty-five centuries of its existence. It has 
 never been so universally studied, never so widely 
 circulated, and never so generally accepted as 
 now." It is more and more evident that the Mas- 
 ter will make His prophecy good, "The heavens 
 and the earth shall pass away, but not one jot 
 or tittle of all that God hath spoken shall fail." 
 
 Experience proves the redeeming power of 
 the "faith once delivered." The Bereans "search- 
 ed the scriptures" and got a blessing. Candace's 
 treasurer read and was redeemed. Peter's audi- 
 tors listened while he rehearsed what God had 
 spoken, and lived! From that early hour until 
 now not an earnest soul, searching these pages for 
 the way of life, has searched in vain. Only yester- 
 day we looked into the face of Jim Berwick. He 
 is the best-known and most universally loved rail- 
 road conductor in America. And yet Jim is not a 
 product of the schools ; his learning is extremely 
 limited. He is not a man of large means; his 
 income is a meager one. The secret of his suc- 
 cess in life lies in the single circumstance, that 
 some years ago he began to search the pages 
 of Sacred Writ. His first discovery was the dis- 
 covery of sin. He saw himself as God had long 
 seen him stained, degraded, undone. He read 
 the sentence of his own doom, "no drunkard shall
 
 24 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 enter the kingdom of heaven." In an agony of 
 heart he searched on until Jesus, the Lord of 
 Life, loomed before him ; and by the printed page 
 He spoke as clearly to Berwick as He ever spake 
 to the blind man at Jericho or to the cripple, car- 
 ried to His feet, by four ; and lo, Jim understood 
 that his "sins were forgiven," and his blindness 
 was removed. He searched on until his justifi- 
 cation before God was revealed, until assurance 
 became his sweet experience, until santification 
 was being accomplished in his heart by that same 
 Word. The Scriptures gave birth to his Christian 
 character ; by them he is sustaining the same, and 
 out from his life is flowing an influence as holy 
 as was hellish the one which formerly went 
 forth. When he stands before the gathered crowds 
 in colleges and conventions, men forget his de- 
 fective grammar and seeing that he has been with 
 Christ, seek to be instructed of him. Some days 
 ago, Jim met a man who asked him if he had 
 read Owen, Paine, Hume or Ingersoll? Jim re- 
 plied in the negative. "Then you are not fit to 
 judge what is right until you have read the other 
 side ?" Jim answered him. "You know the kind 
 of a man I was !" "Yes !" "You know what I 
 have been for seventeen years!" "Yes!" "Did 
 you ever hear of the reading of Paine or Ingersoll 
 changing a man like that?" "No!" "Beloved," 
 said Jim, "will you go and read God's Word ?"
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 2$ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PROMINENCE OF SKEPTICISM IN 
 OUR SCHOOLS. 
 
 "But when some were hardened and disobedi- 
 ent, speaking evil of the way before the multitude, 
 he departed from them and separated the dis- 
 ciples, reasoning daily in the school of one Tyan- 
 nus. This continued for the space of two years ; so 
 that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word 
 of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.''' (Acts 19:8- 
 9). In the previous address we gave considera- 
 tion to Paul's injunction to Timothy; at this time 
 we call attention to the same apostle at work in a 
 school. He was born to educated parents ; he was 
 privileged not alone the best school of his time, 
 but sat at the feet of the greatest instructor of the 
 early centuries Gamaliel. His accomplishments 
 are evidenced in the office to which he succeeded 
 at an early age ; but still more certainly in the lit- 
 erature which he has left us. 
 
 The name "Tyrannus" would signify that 
 he stood in the hall of a Greek philosopher,
 
 26 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 and for two full years reasoned with the 
 crowds who came and went, showing how 
 Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in the 
 person and work of Jesus Christ. The popularity 
 of his work is argued in the phrase "All they 
 that dwelt in Asia heard the word, both Jews and 
 Greeks." One may easily believe that of the mul- 
 titudes who heard, a great number must have 
 become converted to the faith that was in 
 Christ. 
 
 A school is a good place in which to present 
 the truth. To it, repair youth always open- 
 minded; or else those more advanced in life, 
 who have retained -their anxiety to learn ; and the 
 audience is one of special and interesting charac- 
 ter on that account. In our day and country 
 the. school is one of the most marked features of 
 our civilization ; it is everywhere in evidence ; and 
 its purpose is supposed to be the impartation and 
 reception of truth. 
 
 The old question of Pilate, "What is truth?" 
 can never become obsolete, for the simple reason 
 that all of truth can never be known. The mod- 
 ern conception of a school is not so much that of 
 a bureau of information as it is a room of in- 
 quiry; and since skepticism has always bristled 
 with interrogation points, and delighted in asser- 
 tions, it is natural that it should resort to this 
 center for exploitation.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 2/ 
 
 It will not be disputed that skeptics have chos- 
 en the school as 
 
 THE SEAT OF DISCUSSION. 
 
 To this act no one can urge a valid objec- 
 tion. 
 
 The school is appointed for purposes of in- 
 struction. The child begins life as empty in mind 
 as nude in body. The old word "education" has 
 lost its original meaning; the school is now sup- 
 posed to put into the mind what it craves. Dwight 
 Hillis, in his volume, "A Man's Value to Society," 
 says, "The school is to help the boy unpack what 
 intellectual tools he has." That would be a small 
 job. Who can tell what a baby thinks? The 
 school is intended to provide him with intellect- 
 ual tools, and to train him in the use of them. 
 The child begins life with the tool box empty, 
 but with a craving for knowledge akin to that 
 which the stomach has for food. Men have taken 
 advantage of this, and Tyrannus is only one of 
 the thousands who have opened up places of in- 
 struction and have undertaken to provide mental 
 furniture. 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge involves inves- 
 tigation. Inquiry is as native as appetite, and by 
 it men have made their progress. Parents are 
 sometimes pestered because children multiply
 
 28 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 their questions. How else are they to know? If 
 "civilization is a process of self-correction," we 
 can only be corrected by information ; and infor- 
 mation means investigation. Go into the realm of 
 science, if you please, and you will find that any 
 certitudes are the result of investigation. Hippo- 
 crates professed to be a great physician, a medical 
 scientist ; but men investigated his claims and dis- 
 covered his mistakes. Joseph Parker reminds us 
 that when Sir Isaac Newton affirmed that white 
 light consisted of seven different colors it pro- 
 duced a "civil war" among scientists. But inves- 
 tigation demonstrated his claim. Descartes used 
 to be regarded as a kind of idol and to be ranked 
 with Plato and Aristotle and Bacon ; but investi- 
 gation has left "the majority of his speculations 
 to lie in utter ruin." Such instances go to illus- 
 trate the Apostle Paul's words, "Whether there 
 be knowledge (or science) it shall pass away." 
 But any science, killed by investigation, were bet- 
 ter dead. A nobler one will take its place and the 
 purpose of the school will have found expression 
 in the process. The truth is valuable beyond any 
 man's reputation; and real science is more to be 
 desired than the retention of the most popular 
 theory. 
 
 The Scriptures are entitled to no special ex- 
 emption. Some of us, in boyhood, may have be- 
 lieved that the Bible was so holy a book that to
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 29 
 
 look into its historical veracity, or to question its 
 claims of inspiration were "the unpardonable 
 sin." If so, mature years changed that opinion 
 in favor of an investigation of the very founda- 
 tion of one's faith that he may know why he be- 
 lieves in the Bible versus the Koran; and clings 
 to the Sacred Scriptures as against the Zend 
 Avesta. 
 
 There is not an Intelligent conservative who 
 has any contention with the student. He may 
 object to the critic, for criticism is commonly a 
 weakness of human nature, and more often im- 
 agines the flaws to which it objects than it cor- 
 rects existing ones. Truly, as a Conservative re- 
 marks, "We are not afraid of light. We have no 
 fear of progress ; we pray for the expansion and 
 sanctification of scholarship." But we ask for 
 scholarship versus speculation ; for science versus 
 skepticism. Why should lovers of the Bible fear 
 any sort of investigation into the text of their 
 Book into the question of authorship; into its 
 history; into its prophecy; into its gospels? Is 
 any man so stupid as to suppose that a religion 
 built upon the foundation of falsehood will prove 
 of permanent value to him? To charge Conser- 
 vatives with such a conception is to reveal igno- 
 rance of their character, and indifference to the 
 ordinary civilities of life. Let it be forever un- 
 derstood that when such poets as Milton and
 
 30 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 Shakespeare, such philosophers as Bacon and 
 Newton, such statesmen as Bismarck and Glad- 
 stone, such reformers as Luther and Wycliff, 
 such scientists as Galileo and Faraday; such 
 preachers as Spurgeon and Parker, such theo- 
 logical professors as Fisher and Broadus, hold 
 the Bible to be the very Word of God, they have 
 not done it by closing their eyes to the light and 
 truth, but by being convinced that this Book is 
 the embodiment of both. 
 
 No, our objection to the work of "The Higher 
 Critics" is on other grounds altogether ; it has to 
 do with the character of their investigation. We 
 charge that they have deliberately introduced 
 intellectual processes which may be properly de- 
 fined as 
 
 A SINISTER METHOD. 
 
 Permit us to call attention to four objection- 
 able elements in this method. 
 
 i The Adoption of a false term. 
 
 "Science' is a good word, and is properly 
 employed when it is applied to the realm of cer- 
 tified knowledge; but when pure speculation is 
 denominated "Science," language suffers and the 
 unthinking are deceived. We do not hesitate to 
 say that this is just the conduct of "The Higher 
 Critics." Their attitude toward the Old Testa-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 3! 
 
 ment; and ever increasingly, their attitude to- 
 ward the New, is not the attitude of scientific in- 
 vestigation, but of skepticism. What one of them 
 has ever demonstrated by archaeology, or history, 
 that the Old Testament characters were mytho- 
 logical, and when did he do it; that the Old 
 Testment history was only "tradition" finding an 
 eventually improved form and literary expres- 
 sion ? What one of them has massed his "many 
 infallible proofs" against the deity of Jesus 
 Christ, the record of His miracle-working, His 
 atoning sacrifice, His resurrection from the 
 grave, His ascension to the right hand of God, 
 His ability to make good the promise of return 
 and the establishment of His throne in the earth ? 
 Yet upon all these matters they are in greater 
 or less agreement; but the agreement is an as- 
 sertion, not a demonstration. Prof. Geo. B. 
 Foster demands, with reference to the bodily res- 
 urrection of Jesus Christ, "If it is to be proven, 
 it is to be proven to everyone, the most unbeliev- 
 ing- a scientific pagan for instance." When did 
 these gentlemen present any such proof as that 
 of their critical positions ? Who, outside of them- 
 selves, have been convinced by their array of ar- 
 guments, except it be some of the students who 
 have sat at their feet, and whose mental furni- 
 ture was so scarce that even doubt found greedy 
 reception ?
 
 32 THE FINAUTY OF 
 
 To hear these men exploit the defects of the 
 Bible reminds one of Dr. Jackson's story of the 
 two gentlemen, who, as they were walking down 
 a business street saw an owl perched in the win- 
 dow of a taxidermist. "There," said one, "the 
 man who stuffed that owl did not know what he 
 was about ; the feet are not properly placed ; the 
 pose of the head is bad ; the arrangement of the 
 feathers is unnatural." Just then the owl turned 
 his head and winked ; and the self-appointed orni- 
 thologist went his way in chagrin. But Higher 
 Critics are not so easily ashamed; ten thousand 
 of their speculations have fallen to the ground 
 before living facts, and yet practically every one 
 of them still calls his vaporings "Science." 
 2 The creation of a false forum. 
 
 Critics remind us that since the age is a skep- 
 tical one, the school is the proper place for its 
 presentation. They argue "Men and women must 
 meet this attack upon the Scriptures and they may 
 as well do it in their early life," and so men like 
 W. N. Clark, George B. Foster, Prof. H. C. 
 Mitchell,Milton S. Terry, President Bowne, Chan- 
 cellors Hyde and Day, not to speak of a multitude 
 of others, take the boys at Colgate, Chicago, Bos- 
 ton, Yale, etc., and proceed to champion skepti- 
 cism in their presence, and array their arguments 
 in favor of its reception, and when the Conserva- 
 tives complain that such is not the purpose of a
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 33 
 
 theological seminary, the answer is, "These men 
 must meet skepticism; why not in their youth?" 
 The question is not difficult to answer. Youth is 
 not as capable as maturity ; the pupil is not sup- 
 posed to be the equal of- the professor; the boy 
 fresh from the farm or the shop with little 
 knowledge of either science or Scripture has no 
 fair chance against the man who has practiced 
 polemics for ten, twenty or forty years. It is a 
 world where men have to fight their way, but 
 that would never justify me in putting my chil- 
 dren into a roped ring against a Sullivan, to let 
 him bruise their eyes, smash their noses, 
 and knock out their teeth. To call a 
 class-room, where a professor dogmatizes, 
 and students are practically compelled to 
 receive what is said, a "forum of debate" is to 
 juggle with terms with an evil intent. To jus- 
 tify the destruction of the faith in which one 
 was born, and in which his forefathers lived victo- 
 riously and died triumphantly, before he becomes 
 capable of deciding whether he should surrender 
 or retain the same, is a piece of robbery beside 
 which the work of highwaymen is a minor inci- 
 dent. To see how such men as these would fare 
 if you pitted them against their equals, and see 
 how soon the suave professor would lose his 
 sweetness, and what appearance he would make 
 when the conflict is over, one needs only to read
 
 34 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 the controversy which occurred a few years since 
 between Prof. George Burnam Foster and the 
 editor of the Indiana Baptist; or the Chicago 
 daily papers' report of the tilt between Prof. 
 Milton S. Terry and Evangelist W. L. Munhall. 
 Or, if one takes pleasure in a fight between 
 preachers, let him read Dr. Horton's series of 
 "Tentative Suggestions" and Joseph Parker's re- 
 ply in "None Like It." In every instance he will 
 see illustrated what Parker said in answer to the 
 argument of those who do not receive the con- 
 clusions of the skeptics, but who object to their 
 excoriation on the ground "These are nice men 
 and perhaps honest in their convictions." Parker 
 says "I tremble when I am introduced to 'a nice 
 man' ; such a 'nice man', such a 'quiet man', such 
 a gentleman.' " You never know what a man is 
 until you have interfered with his vested inter- 
 ests, or until you have seen him under insult. 
 Then you will knew how "very nice a man" he is, 
 how "extremely quiet," how absolutely "modest." 
 I have had to do with "nice men" until I dread 
 the term. As James Russell Lowell put it, 
 
 "There's a deal of solid kicking 
 In the meekest looking mule." 
 
 All this sweetness of temper about which 
 professors from the Chicago University, once
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 35 
 
 boasted at the mention of Foster's name, faded 
 when the editor of the Indiana Baptist proved 
 more than his match in an argument, and Foster, 
 so far forgot himself as to descend to billings- 
 gate and say at one time, "This is false.' " He 
 also charged the editor with "misrepresentation, 
 defamation, vulgarity and abuse." The whole 
 tone of his expression, in a series of replies, is 
 arrogant and ill-tempered. The halo of the gen- 
 tleness left the head of Terry when he likened 
 Dr. Munhall to a "cur sitting on his haunches, 
 and barking at the blowing of Gabriel's trumpet." 
 
 In a real forum these men fare so badly that 
 sweetness is impossible; but in a school-room, 
 where their titles, dominating position and vested 
 powers can compel attention, why should they 
 not be suave for the very sake of seduction ? 
 3 The adoption of a false philosophy. 
 
 One seldom meets a young graduate from the 
 skeptical theological seminary, but he will find 
 him thanking his stars that he has studied under 
 "higher critical" professors. If he has received 
 their conclusions he is as cock-sure of the results 
 as they are ; and if he has rejected them, he is 
 taught to believe that he is all the better for hav- 
 ing passed through a period of awful doubts ; that 
 his standing ground is all the more sure, because 
 for a while he was without standing ground ; that 
 the Bread of Life is all the more palatable by con-
 
 36 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 trast with the poison of which he has tasted. 
 Is such a philosophy sound? Some time since 
 the Larchmont was sunken at sea. and one hun- 
 dred and seventy people suddenly found them- 
 selves struggling in the coldest waves. Seventeen 
 of those were finally saved ; 1 53 of them found a 
 grave in the deep. Shall those seventeen toast 
 their shins at a comfortable hearth and express 
 their gratitude that the Larchmont went down, 
 since, but for its sinking, they never could have 
 appreciated, as perfectly as they ought, the de- 
 lights of standing upon the solid earth? Such 
 sentiment would sound like the gibberish of the 
 insane ; and would express an utter indifference 
 to the fate of the dead. A few years ago, one of 
 the noblest men I ever knew in the ilesh, cut from 
 the park what he supposed to be a basket full of 
 mushrooms. His entire family feasted upon them. 
 Four of the five who had partaken finally recov- 
 ered, but in less than forty-eight hours the noble 
 father was dead. Would our theological profes- 
 sors advise the eating of toad-stools that those 
 who escaped evil results should the more appre- 
 ciate the real mushroom? And yet, if one had to 
 make a choice between surrendering his friend's 
 body to the poison of the toadstool, or his soul to 
 the deadly effect of unbelief, he would be a false 
 friend indeed who hesitated for one second to 
 choose the former ; for is it not written, "Whoso-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 37 
 
 ever goeth onward, and abideth not in the teach- 
 ing of Christ, hath not God." 
 
 4 The employment of foul politics. 
 
 It is one of the wonders of the present day 
 that skeptical men have so speedily succeeded to 
 so many professorships. The great denomina- 
 tions, an overwhelming majority of whose mem- 
 bers believe the Bible from cover to cover, can not 
 understand how it comes about that so many in- 
 structors are skeptical. The unsuspecting are told 
 that this is in consequence of the superior educa- 
 tion of these men ; and that intellectuality and in- 
 fidelity are now almost synonymous. It is a cute 
 ruse but it can not forever remain uncovered. 
 Every man who gets at all close to the denomina- 
 tional machine shortly discovers how these results 
 are secured. There is many a loyal Methodist 
 who goes back from the great annual gathering, 
 sick at heart by reason of the political features of 
 the assembly. The wires that were supposed to 
 be laid underground have protruded, and we have 
 seen them pulled ! While they sometimes appear 
 in the candidacy of the bishopric, and more often 
 in connection with appointment to the pastorate, 
 the school office its presidency and professorship, 
 is where the great coup is attempted ; and where 
 the skeptical, and of course the "smart men"(?) 
 have succeeded.
 
 38 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 In the Baptist denomination, where the church 
 polity is different, the political aspirant is not 
 lacking. The time i s now on, when, with 
 that denomination, a successful essential to 
 school appointment seems to be that a 
 man should have expressed his do-jbt regarding 
 the trustworthiness of the Bible, and so becomes 
 the advanced thinker. This promotion does not 
 occur often enough, and so a Baptist Congress 
 is organized and the honored name of the denomi- 
 nation is compelled to play tail to the kite of 
 Higher Critics. Standing committees for the or- 
 dination of men for the ministry, the general ad- 
 justment of denominational difficulties, and sub- 
 rosa for the power of pastoral nomination- --nre 
 eloquently argued in the name of "Progress" and 
 "Advance." 
 
 Since the Congregational Church Polity is 
 practically the same, the schemes adopted there 
 follow similar lines; and with kindred results. 
 In the effort to coup the whole situation "The 
 Religious Education Association" is formed, and 
 one in ten is a Conservative, chosen to keep up ap- 
 pearances of equity. This association proposes to 
 give us "new (Higher Critic) methods" and "im- 
 proved (Higher Critic) helps." 
 
 Among the Presbyterians of America, wire- 
 pulling by skeptics has not been so successful ; and 
 in some notable instances the men who laid hold
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 39 
 
 upon them, found them live wires, and they now lie 
 dead at the place where they accomplished the 
 touch. But it is more and more becoming known 
 that in Scotland, once the very home of this stal- 
 wart folk, conservatives have been driven from 
 many professorships, where unpleasant treatment 
 and political wire-pulling methods made such a 
 thing possible, and Prof. James Orr is permitted 
 none too many colleagues "in the faith." Sinis- 
 ter methods are always, and everywhere, open to 
 criticism, but when skeptics adopt them in the 
 name of "scholarship," it is an occasion for such 
 a protest as the great denominations ought now 
 to utter; and by an unequivocal voice, forever 
 end these methods. 
 
 But, in conclusion, 
 
 THE SORRY RESUI/TS. 
 
 Time forbids that we should mention more 
 than four of these: 
 
 i. The original purpose of the school is 
 thwarted. Every school in the land is established 
 in the interest of truth. Even the secular schools 
 are supposed to impart truth the truth of math- 
 ematics, the truth of history, the truth of botany, 
 the truth of geology, the truth of astronomy, and 
 so on. Christian schools, founded and endowed 
 by Christian denominations, are set for all of 
 these, and for the exposition of the Bible addi-
 
 40 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 tionally. There are not half a dozen instances in 
 all America, where schools wearing the name of 
 any one of the great denominations, were not 
 founded and fostered by men whose faith in the 
 utter inspiration of the Word was unshaken. 
 What right, then, has infidel teaching within these 
 walls? 
 
 It seems bad enough for a University like that 
 of Chicago to be framed on a Baptist foundation, 
 and permit a man to stand in its walls, and deny, 
 in the presence of its theological students, every 
 fundamental of our holy faith, even though it be 
 true that its founder and principal supporter is 
 alive and consent's! How much more, when in 
 such an institution as the Northwestern Univer- 
 sity, baptized in the blood of the saints of the 
 Methodist church, on the occasion of the instal- 
 lation of President James, Prof. Hyde dares to 
 say, "For bishop or minister, or trustee, or pious 
 layman, to interfere with the teachings of a com- 
 petent university professor on theological 
 grounds, is as wanton and brutal an act as it 
 would be for a prize fighter to step into the pulpit 
 and knock down the minister because he happen- 
 ed to have the bigger fist." 
 
 Have we reached the time when a skep- 
 tical professor is so important that he can 
 not be asked to answer to the institution 
 that pays his salary, or to the denomination
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 4! 
 
 that founds the school ? Has the order of the age 
 been inverted, when the servant becomes 
 greater than his lord? Have the ethics of 
 the twentieth century, at the touch of the 
 Higher Critics, taken such a turn that 
 Joseph may now despoil the wife of Pharoah 
 and answer to neither him nor God? If so, the 
 more humble folk have not found it out. God 
 forbid that the secret leak ! Only a few days ago 
 a young woman, born and brought up in a non- 
 evangelical home, bred in an atmosphere of cere- 
 monialism, accepted the gospel of regeneration, 
 submitted herself to the ordinace of Bible baptism, 
 and took the consequences of social estrangement. 
 But she had been a teacher in the school of the 
 church which christened her in infancy, and was 
 now urged to continue in the same position ! She 
 answered, "You would not want me to teach your 
 children contrary to your faith; and believing as 
 I now do, I could not instruct in accordance with 
 it ; and of course it would not be right for me to 
 accept your money for my support while teaching 
 that which you yourselves refuse and reject." She 
 is a plain girl, in a rural district, where the Eng- 
 lish is poorly spoken; but we insist that her 
 sense of right is the sore need of the so-called "ad- 
 vanced thinkers" of the age ; and that if they en- 
 joyed anything akin to it there would be a thou- 
 sand resignations from American professorships
 
 42 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 before the breaking of another morn. But a false 
 theology never produced true ethics, and it never 
 can ! Perhaps, therefore, we should not complain 
 of these men who jealously guard their salaried 
 positions, while they are about destroying the 
 faith that made them possible; for it is an open 
 secret that not all of them could secure audiences, 
 Ingersoll-like, who would pay $1.00 a head to 
 listen to attacks upon the Word of God. The 
 custom has now become so common as to lose its 
 commercial value. And if these skeptics should 
 resign, how could they maintain their families ? 
 2. The poor student is speedily despoiled. 
 We employ the term "poor student" to define on 
 the one side the deleterious effects of infidelity 
 upon his life ; and, on the other, to describe his 
 ability. It is a strange fact, yet an incontroverti- 
 ble one, that the more stupid the man, the more 
 speedily he surrenders to new-fangled notions. 
 Some of the men we knew at the theological 
 seminary are now full-fledged critics ; but not 
 one of the full course graduates whose grade was 
 80 to loo, has succumbed, while several who never 
 did finish it, and never could finish the Seminary's 
 course, have, by a six weeks' course in the Chi- 
 cago University, made the great discovery that 
 the opening chapters of Genesis are not history, 
 that Abraham was a tribe, Jonah a myth and
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 43 
 
 Christ a mere man of uncertain ancestry and in- 
 secure accomplishments. 
 
 There may be another reason for all this! 
 Stupid men poor students do not speedily rise 
 in the public estimation, and when such see a 
 man, who for ten years held an unimportant pas- 
 torate in their denomination, surrender his faith 
 in the historicity of the Old Testament and his 
 allegiance to the great doctrines of the New, and 
 join himself to a body of so-called liberal think- 
 ers, to be promoted from a salary of $1200 to 
 one of $5,000, and from ministering to 100 people 
 to the pastorate of ten times that number, and 
 from being ignored by his own denomination 
 while he remained with them, to a sudden call to 
 be the University preacher of the denomination, 
 left, it mightily appeals to the little man. This 
 instance is well known. Who knows what the 
 surrender of the faith of one's fathers and of 
 one's Christ may accomplish in the way of pro- 
 motion? And who can understand what a sub- 
 tle temptation to the superficial man, is the repu- 
 tation of being "scholarly?" 
 
 On the other hand, when the good student is 
 seduced by the skepticism that wears the mask 
 of scholarship, who can tell what sufferings his 
 believing parents and friends endure; and what 
 pangs may yet take hold upon his very soul? 
 We listened a while ago to an honored father re-
 
 44 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 late the story of having dismissed from his home 
 a noble son, whose faith in the Word of God 
 was unshaken, and whose purpose was the Gos- 
 pel ministry, to receive back at the end of two 
 years an utter skeptic, who had, as a result of 
 twenty-six lectures on "The Bible as Literature," 
 decided there was no Gospel to preach ; and with 
 some pangs of heart, made choice of another 
 profession ! 
 
 Yet, we ask why so few are entering 
 the ministry? If, perchance, one continues in 
 his ministry, limping his way, until the Lord, 
 from sheer compassion, drops in beside him and 
 unfolds the truth of the Word, as He did to the 
 two on the way to Emmaus, till his holden eyes 
 are open, he may come forth to tell the world, 
 as one has already said of his experience, "Sun- 
 day after Sunday I went into my pulpit while 
 my heart was ready to break. I had lost my 
 childhood faith and there was none to take its 
 place. The agony of the 22nd Psalm I knew ; 
 but God drew me out of the engulfing waters, 
 out of the pit of miry clay ; set my feet upon the 
 rock; established my going, and put a new song 
 into my mouth; . . . and now I know that the 
 Bible is God's Book, and that it is true." But, 
 withal, he will have to weep his way to the grave 
 over the years he has wasted and the undoings 
 he has wrought.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 45 
 
 3. The church is deceived and crippled. How 
 many of the infected graduates of our skeptical 
 seminaries have dared to tell pulpit committees, 
 corresponding with reference to a call, just what 
 their opinion of the Old Testament was; just 
 what they should say on the subject of "corrupt 
 texts;" "imaginary history," "myth," and what 
 more? When did one of them write to a com- 
 mittee frankly, saying, "If I come to your pul- 
 pit, I expect to oppose practically every article 
 your denomination has adopted and to tear to 
 shreds the one relating itself to the inspiration of 
 the Bible?" Why should not these gentlemen be 
 honest? Time and again I have said in my 
 pulpit, and I reaffirm it, that if people do not be- 
 lieve this Book to be God's Word, I do not want 
 them in the membership of my church. How 
 many of our critics dare to take the opposite 
 side, and tell their congregation frankly that if 
 they do believe it, it were better to take their 
 letters and go where such a "fossil faith" is 
 preached ? 
 
 It is related that Sam Jones used to have a 
 custom of saying to his congregation, "Now, if 
 you don't like what I say, just get up and rack 
 out," and nobody moved. Some fellow, seeing 
 with what pleasantry Sam's congregation re- 
 ceived it, thought to adopt it, and he rued the re- 
 sult. They moved almost in a body. Anything
 
 46 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 like a candid expression of their convictions 
 would empty many of the churches of our Higher 
 Critics. Of course in answer to this, it is said, 
 "One don't need to preach his doubts ;" but do 
 our brethren intend to concede, then, that their 
 opinions have reached no firm foundations; that 
 their scholarship is not scientific and positive; 
 that eternal truth is not with them ? Hardly ; 
 and yet, when one of them remarks, as we have 
 heard a number of them do, "I say these things 
 in this assembly of ministers; I wouldn't care to 
 preach them in my pulpit," he forces us to one 
 of twA opinions of him either he is not con- 
 vinced of the truth or else he is a coward. 
 
 Finally, Christ is betrayed by His professed 
 friends. When Judas Iscariot was read} to de- 
 liver Him into the hands of His enemies, he 
 turned the trick by a kiss. When the modern 
 critic undertakes the same he accomplishes it by 
 an eloquent speech. In the same book in which 
 Prof. Foster has stripped Christ of His immac- 
 ulate conception, His infinite wisdom, His sacri- 
 ficial death, His corporeal resurrection, and His 
 reputed ascension, he has paid Him a multitude 
 of pleasing compliments. But when Judas faced 
 eternity he was filled with a fear that had tor- 
 ment, and no possible search revealed to him a 
 place of repentance. Higher Critics either know 
 Christ or they don't. If they don't know Him,
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 47 
 
 we have the explanation of their inability to re- 
 ceive the Word, "for the natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the Spirit;" if they once knew 
 Him, and were tempted away by this subtle ap- 
 peal of Satan, "It is written" that "having been 
 enlightened; having tasted of the heavenly gift; 
 having been made partakers of the Holy Spirit; 
 and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers 
 of the age to come, and fallen away, it is impos- 
 sible to renew them again unto repentance, see- 
 ing they crucify to themselves the Son of God 
 afresh, and put Him to an open shame." 
 
 My auditors, let me implore you not to follow 
 them into this darkness of unbelief. To me the 
 most terrible description of hell is phrased in 
 the expression "outer darkness." Who can tell 
 what it means to lose the light? A young Bap- 
 tisf minister, making his way by ship to the Holy 
 Land, was visiting in Rome, when word came 
 that smallpox had broken out on board, and the 
 ship was quarantined against his return. What 
 vas his dismay a few days later to find himself 
 in that far, strange city, a victim of the dread 
 malady. A native who could speak English was 
 his nurse. Day after day the disease waxed ; and 
 his vitality waned. One morning, after a fitful 
 nap, he wakened. His first thought was, "It is 
 night!" Then memory wrought, and he said, 
 "But a few moments ago and the sun was shining
 
 48 THE FINAUTY Of 
 
 into the window," and with anguish that told the 
 story of his alarm, he cried, "Oh, Antonio! Are 
 you there?" And then asked, "Is it day?" Being 
 answered in the affirmative, he cried again, "Oh, 
 Antonio! I am blind! I am blind!" His sight 
 was gone. The next day the struggle was over. 
 He had wakened in the world of Light and 
 walked the streets of the New Jerusalem, where 
 neither sun nor moon are needed, "for the Lamb 
 is the light thereof." But the man who meets 
 the, last enemy in "the darkness of unbe- 
 lief" will be carried down by him into that "outer 
 darkness" of which Jesus spake, the very pall of 
 which is increased by "weeping and wailing and 
 gnashing of teeth." When the blind lead the 
 blind, God pity them both !
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 49 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PREVALENCE OF SKEPTICISM IN 
 PULPITS. 
 
 "Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in 
 the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that 
 abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the 
 Father and the Son. If any one cometh unto you, 
 and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not 
 into your house, and give him no greeting: for 
 he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil 
 works." (2 John 9-11). This text is chosen as 
 the starting point for this discourse, not because it 
 involves disfellowship, but because it describes, 
 with accuracy, the conduct and opinions of some 
 who now occupy evangelical pulpits. If one could 
 exercise his own preference in the discussion ol 
 such a theme as this, he would yield to the temp- 
 tation of kindly speech at the expense of truth, 
 and of compromise at the cost of candor. There 
 is no more painful experience than that of be- 
 ing compelled to impeach either the motive or the 
 conclusions of the fellows of one's own profes- 
 sion. And yet there are times in which one must 
 make choice between surrendering the very name
 
 50 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 of his calling, or else disfellowship those who 
 have trailed its nobility in the dust. 
 
 In the profession of Bible teaching that time 
 is now on, and the Scripture selected for consid- 
 eration plainly indicates the conduct which must 
 characterize him who remains loyal to "the teach- 
 ings of the Christ." The text describes the pro- 
 gressive pastor, indicates the point of separation, 
 and demands the end of fraternity. 
 
 THE "PROGRESSIVE" PASTOR. 
 
 "Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in 
 the teaching of Christ." It is a significant fact that 
 the very phrase "goeth onward" (proagon) is 
 practically identical with our word "progressive" 
 which has been voluntarily assumed by the Bible 
 critics of our times. 
 
 In discussing those of them who are pastors, 
 we propose to follow the plan adopted in deal- 
 ing with the scholars namely, to employ the 
 names of three or four pastors whose wide-spread 
 reputation, lofty position, and theological opin- 
 ions make them easily leaders among so-called 
 liberal pastors, and invite your consideration to 
 their recent utterances. Perhaps none will object 
 if the names of Dr. Fischer, pastor at Berlin, 
 Germany ; Dr. R. J. Campbell, successor to Joseph 
 Parker, London, England; Dr. Crapsey, recently 
 removed from the Episcopal pastorate, and Dr.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 5! 
 
 Lyman Abbott the best known Congregationai- 
 ist in America, are chosen. I should be very glad 
 indeed, being a Baptist, to name a notable man 
 of my own denomination ; but while we are honey- 
 combed with Higher Criticism, the denomination 
 has no pastor, either in the old or new world, 
 holding to higher critical views and at the same 
 time occupying a specially exalted pulpit. 
 
 In studying the utterances of the above nam- 
 ed, and even of scores of others who are their 
 confederates in opinion, we find agreement at 
 three points, which goes to make up the claim of 
 the progressive pastor. 
 
 i. He knows his methods to be scientific: 
 Dr. Fischer, before the Convention of the Protes- 
 tant Verein reminded his auditors of that fact 
 in the following way: "There can no longer be 
 any claim to a revelation in the old sense of the 
 word. The idea is not in agreement with the 
 certain results of modern scientific research. It 
 is beyond doubt that the investigations of science 
 and history, and the unprejudiced researches in- 
 to the character of original Christianity, which 
 have been going on for about seventy years with- 
 out regard to dogmas and doctrines, have made 
 religion something entirely different from what it 
 had traditionally been supposed to be, etc." His 
 defenders also demanded the full liberty of the- 
 ological expression in the name of "scientific in-
 
 52 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 dependence" and inveighed against the abridging 
 of "freedom of expressing theological views in 
 the churches" and of the "independence of scien- 
 tific investigators." 
 
 Dr. Campbell, in his very recent declaration 
 concerning what he calls "Restated Theology," re- 
 minds the public that "The new theology, in com- 
 mon with the whole scientific world, believes that 
 the finite universe is one aspect or expression of 
 God, but it thinks of 'It' or 'Him' as consciousness 
 rather than a blind force, thereby differing from 
 some scientists." Dr. Crapsey, in his de- 
 fense of the denial of the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion, said that this interpretation has been forced 
 upon him by a "knowledge of the facts." 
 
 Americans are well enough acquainted with 
 Lyman Abbott's positions to know that he holds 
 them all to be "scientific." 
 
 Profession is one thing; possession is anoth- 
 er. It is not certain that there is a scientist in 
 the views quoted. The Consistory of Berlin, com- 
 posed of the ecclesiastical superiors of Dr. Fisch- 
 er, in calling upon him to resign his office on ac- 
 count of preaching contrary to the doctrines of 
 the church, said, "His views are those of a man 
 who is not yet mature in his theological thinking:." 
 
 If any one ever suspected R. J. Campbell of 
 being "scientific" we have yet to learn his name. 
 Even Canon Henson, himself a radical higher
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 53 
 
 critic, when asked whether Campbell's liberal 
 movement in London would amount to anything, 
 is reputed to have replied, "No, I think it is a 
 tempest in a teacup, ; I do not think the element of 
 a movement is in it at all." 
 
 As for Dr. Crapsey, if he had discovered 
 "facts" which disproved the immaculate conceo- 
 tion, he should have marshalled them before his 
 judges and so saved both himself and his mistak- 
 en denomination. 
 
 Dr. Abbott's science is not that of an investi- 
 gator; but that of an orator, whose facts are com- 
 monly eloquently phrased fancies. 
 
 It is possible, therefore, that these gentlemen, 
 in common with the great company who call them- 
 selves "scientific," profess that which they do not 
 possess. It does not make a profession scientific 
 to name it so. An old colored woman in the 
 South was addressed by one of our great states- 
 men, who happened to be riding by her cabin, 
 "Auntie, are those your boys ?" She replied, "Dey 
 is not my chillen; dey is my grandchillcn." 
 "What are their names ?" "Well, dem chillen has 
 right smaht names ; dis one is named de Apossle 
 Paul ; and dat one is named de Epissle Petah." 
 But the name did not make an apostle of the first ; 
 nor an epistle of the second. We would like 
 some gentleman who is truly scientific to pass 
 judgment upon Campbell's statement. "The whole
 
 54 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 scientific world believes that the finite universe is 
 one aspect or expression of God, but it thinks of 
 It or Him as consciousness rather than a blind 
 force, thereby differing from some scientists." 
 Who are the scientists that do not belong with 
 "the whole scientific world ?" Positively a speech 
 like that reminds one of nothing so much as the 
 introductory remark of a colored man in Texas 
 on the occasion of Thanksgiving day : "My bred- 
 ren, dis am de day when de gov'ment of dis 
 United States calls upon de hole civilized wurld 
 to present itself a livin' sacrifice to demonstrate de 
 administration." 
 
 I do not say that the man who claims that 
 his theology is in line with "the whole scientific 
 world" is non compos mentis; he may yet have 
 some notions that are intelligent ; but in all likeli- 
 hood they are few enough to warrant the fumi- 
 gation of his opinions on the principle that was 
 involved in the report of "The Baltimore Ameri- 
 can." A man said, "Why did they insist on fumi- 
 gating that poor old bookworm's manuscripts ?" 
 to which his friend replied, "I suppose they were 
 afraid it might contain some germs of thought." 
 
 2. He speaks the shibboleth of skepticism. 
 Henry Van Dyke, speaking of this age of doubt, 
 says, "Its coat of arms is an interrogation point 
 rampant, above three bishops dormant, and its 
 motto is Query?" Later he argues that science
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 55 
 
 has been corralled in the name of skepticism and 
 
 made to appear hostile to religion? In literature 
 "skepticism in all its shades and degrees, from the 
 most clear, self-conscious and aggressive, to the 
 most vague, diffused, and deprecatory, is reflected 
 in the current productions. He traces it in the 
 lay sermons of Huxley, Tyndall, Harrison and 
 Clifford. He names these men "Knight-errants 
 of Doubting Castle." He affirms that skepticism 
 hangs like a cloud over the fragmentary but ma- 
 jestic life-philosophies of Carlyle and Emerson. 
 He remarks, truly, "in the vivid and picturesque 
 historical studies of Renan and Froude, skepti- 
 cism is at once ironical and idealistic, destructive 
 and dogmatic." He says, "In the novels of un- 
 flinching and unblushing naturalism, like those of 
 Zola and Maupassant, and the later works of 
 Thomas Hardy, skepticism speaks with a harsh 
 and menacing accent of the emptiness of all life 
 and the futility of all endeavor." "In many of 
 the later novels of the day we find no recognition, 
 even between the lines, of the influence which 
 the idea of God or its absence, the practice of 
 prayer or its neglect, actually exercises upon the 
 character and conduct of men." He affirms that 
 even poetry has fallen under the spell : "we hear 
 today the voice of skepticism most clearly 'making 
 abundant music around an elementary nihilism, 
 now stripped naked.' "
 
 56 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 How natural that men should inhale what 
 is in the atmosphere, and ministers are only men. 
 There was a time when the preacher's only temp- 
 tation was to carnality. His confidence in a per- 
 sonal God, in an inspired Book, in a sin-bearing 
 Saviour was not only unshaken, it was undis- 
 turbed. The times were slow and it was not diffi- 
 cult for him to be always abreast of them; novr 
 they are steaming and flashing like lightning and 
 he is told he must keep abreast still, and the times 
 are skeptical. "If I hold to 'the faith once de- 
 livered' how can I deal with an age which has 
 denied it? How can I gain audience with men 
 who have pushed past the position I occupy ? How 
 can I command the respect, and accomplish the 
 conversion of those who subscribe to the latest 
 scientific magazine, unless I speak their shibbo- 
 leth, and let them know that I still stand at their 
 side?" This is the subtle temptation! Men, and 
 even ministers forget that the way to turn back 
 the galloping herd, is not to take their course 
 and keep up with them, but to take a stand and 
 call after them. The skeptical preacher can no 
 more assist the skeptical sinner than a drowning 
 man can assist his sinking friend. Christ was not 
 speaking of a journey in unbelief when he said, 
 "Whosoever shall compel thee to go with him one 
 mile, go with him twain." 
 
 All through the Northland of the United
 
 THE; HIGHER CRITICISM 57 
 
 States, our so-called "sacred press" teems with ar- 
 ticles written by advanced thinkers who are tell- 
 ing us how up-to-date theology is essential to 
 success in dealing with the keen, well-trained in- 
 tellects of the hour. But the reports made at ev- 
 ery annual gathering, of men, women and chil- 
 dren won even to their churches, not to say to 
 Christ, belie their boast. A more ineffectual 
 gospel has never been preached than that which 
 Mr. Campbell names "The New Theology ;" and 
 as for its advocates in the pulpit, it is a notorious 
 fact that if Conservatives did not visit their 
 churches once a year to hold a series of meetings 
 they would face the shame of utter failure in 
 reaching men. The only point of profit, therefore, 
 in this whole position, seems to be that which Vic- 
 tor Hugo sums up when speaking of Tholomeys, 
 the rich old roue, who had "replaced his teeth 
 by jests, and his hair by joy, and his health by 
 irony, and made verses now and then on any sub- 
 ject." "However," said Hugo, "he doubted ev- 
 erything with an air of superiority a great pow- 
 er in the eyes of the weak." 
 
 3. To the progressive pastor the faith of the 
 fathers is fogyism. There is not one of these pas- 
 tors but has at some time spoken of the convic- 
 tions of the Conservatives as "the traditional 
 view." When the great Gladstone was alive and 
 writing his book "The Impregnable Rock of
 
 58 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 Holy Scripture" he spoke of Prof. Huxley's de- 
 scription of the battle of Faith in which Huxley 
 speaks of "the old fashioned artillery" of the 
 churches on the one side and the "weapons of pre- 
 cision" used by the advancing forces of science on 
 the other. Think, will you, of Joseph Parker, in 
 London, England, battling away with nothing 
 better than the "old-fashioned artillery" of the 
 churches "The Gospel" of which Paul was "not 
 ashamed;" while his successor in office, R. J. 
 Campbell, comes to the conflict with the "weapons 
 of precision" the development of Modern Sci- 
 ence. And yet, somehow or other, Parker ac- 
 complished things, constructed a great building ; 
 called together a great congregation, produced 
 great books, and better yet, aided in the great 
 development of hundreds and thousands of lives. 
 Now his successor, R. J. Campbell, with the 
 "weapons of precision the development of mod- 
 ern science" is destroying a congregation, weak- 
 ening the faith of his fellows, starting on a cam- 
 paign in the interests of "restated theology" that 
 his confrere in skepticism, Canon Henson, calls, 
 "a storm in a teacup, with no element of a move- 
 ment in it." 
 
 Joseph Parker proudly confesses his allegiance 
 to "the faith once delivered;" "the faith of the 
 fathers;" the faith that presents "a personal 
 God ;" "an infallible Book," "a Divine Christ," "a
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 59 
 
 salvation from sin through His sufferings " 
 There are "dogmas" in that faith ; but dogma does 
 not necessarily oppose science ; it may express it. 
 There is nothing in all the universe so uncom- 
 promising, so dogmatic as science which is also 
 God's revelation. Conservatives do not hold their 
 dogmas simply because they have been stated and 
 their fathers have held them true; they believe 
 them on scientific grounds. "The heavens de- 
 clare the glory of God and the firmament show- 
 eth his handiwork." It is the work of a person, 
 not of a "force;" of intelligence, not of "fortui- 
 tous circumstances." They believe the Bible to be 
 inspired because there is every evidence of it! 
 The historical evidence is conclusive! It is far 
 more reasonable to suppose that the nations round 
 about Israel borrowed from Israel's faith and cor- 
 rupted what they borrowed, than it is to believe 
 that Israel borrowed from the nations round 
 about and completed what she borrowed. It may 
 not be in keeping with the exploded theory of 
 evolution, but it is in perfect accord with the facts 
 of history that men more often and more easily 
 build up a false faith than they construct a true 
 one. We believe that Christ was the Son of God 
 because it does not offend our reason. There is 
 nothing unreasonable in the idea that God should 
 beget, in the flesh One like unto Himself and 
 give His Son to the world as the Saviour from
 
 60 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 its sins. To deny that is to deny the central truth 
 of all theology old or new namely, "God is 
 Love." "Greater love hath no man than this, 
 that a man lay down his life for his friends, but 
 God commended his love toward us in that while 
 we were yet sinners Christ died for us." The 
 Bible plan of salvation appeals to Reason. 
 
 We believe that His death was an atonement 
 for sin partly because it is according to Revela- 
 tion ; but particularly because it is according to 
 Reason. All that we know in this life confirms 
 that claim. There is no sin that is ever atoned 
 for without the suffering of somebody and 
 quite often the innocent have to suffer for the 
 guilty. Call it dogmatic if you like ; name its ad- 
 vocates "back-numbers," speak of them as "old 
 fogies" and all that; but do not forget that up 
 to this present time, with all your boasted prog- 
 ress, you cannot present a point of improvement 
 upon the old theory and the old Book. What have 
 you added to its moral code? What satisfactory 
 substitute have you given for the old doctrine of 
 inspiration? What have you permanently sub- 
 tracted from it to make it more trustworthy? 
 The world is waiting for a better theory of crea- 
 tion than Genesis I :i "In the beginning God 
 created the heaven and the earth;" for a better 
 plan of salvation than John 3:16 "God so loved 
 the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 6l 
 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life ;" for a more satisfactory ex- 
 pression of inspiration than Hebrews I :i "God, 
 who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake 
 in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath 
 in the end of these days spoken unto us in His 
 Son." 
 
 THE POINT OF SEPARATION. 
 
 "If any one cometh unto you and bringeth 
 not this teaching receive him not into your 
 house and give him no greeting." 
 
 There can be no controversy concerning the 
 meaning of this passage. To accept it at what 
 it says necessitates separation from those who 
 deny "the teachings of Christ." It is plainly af- 
 firmed "They have not God." 
 
 But this involves other questions. 
 
 How do ive know what Christ taught? What 
 are the sources of information? Conservatives 
 say, "the Gospels ; the Book of the Acts, and some 
 of the epistles." Here we have the purported re- 
 port of the teachings of Christ by eye-witnesses. 
 They report Christ as having been begotten by 
 the Holy Spirit, in keeping with prophecy. ( Matt. 
 1:20, 23). They report Christ as having claimed 
 equality with the Father, "I and my father are 
 one." They report Christ as having willingly
 
 62 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 laid down His own life, "I lay down my life ; no 
 man taketh it from me." They report Christ as 
 having taught that salvation depended upon one's 
 faith in Him, "No man cometh unto the Father 
 but by me." They report Christ as having risen 
 from the dead, and record many of His post- 
 resurrection teachings. They report Christ as 
 having ascended up to the right hand of God,' 
 and record what He said in the very act of as- 
 cent. 
 
 Now our progressive pastors are almost at 
 one in insisting that "the Gospels are full of er- 
 rors, and demand in various parts very unequal 
 credence." Mr. W. H. Mallock says "They speak 
 of Christ's spoken discourses as 'often nothing 
 more than vague conjectures of the evangelists.' " 
 They describe them as "subjective visions," "un- 
 warranted imaginations," etc. Perhaps these Pro- 
 gressives will permit a question? "How do they 
 know these things ?" Conservatives have the tes- 
 timony of eye-witnesses concerning the teachings 
 of Jesus. No intelligent man will claim that 
 the canon of the New Testament is essentially 
 changed from what it was when first it came from 
 the hands of its authors. And it is by the writ- 
 ings of these men that our Christ lives in our 
 faith. Who created the Christ "Progressives" de- 
 scribe ? What witnesses have they as to who He 
 was and what He taught? Is it possible that
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 63 
 
 critics in the pastorate have accomplished what 
 critics in the schools say is an impossibility ? Have 
 we not already read from Dr. Driver, "It is ri- 
 diculous to imagine that history can be rewritten 
 by a series of unsupported guesses, however in- 
 genious." What scientific support have these gen- 
 tlemen for their guesses? R. F. Horton tells 
 us that in the ruined abbey of St. Albans the 
 restorers found unnumbered fragments of paint- 
 ed stone trodden into the ground behind the 
 chancel. "When these were collected and care- 
 fully placed together the shrine of the saint was 
 recovered, which stands now in its completeness, 
 a visible proof that the fragments had originally 
 belonged to the whole. In the same way we are 
 able to take the scattered utterances, the thoughts 
 of Jesus, and fit them together until a lovely and 
 harmonious structure of doctrine arises before 
 our eyes." 
 
 But whence are we to find them? The Con- 
 servatives bring the material for the image of 
 their Christ from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 
 and Acts. The Progressives have repudiated these 
 as non-dependable. Who is providing them with 
 the material which they are piecing together? 
 Matthew we know, Luke we know, Mark we 
 know, John we know, Paul we know; but who 
 are these that are providing material out of which 
 the Christ of "new theology" is being created?
 
 64 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 Our policy is expressed in Scripture thus: 
 "Search the scriptures for they are they that tes- 
 tify of me." Let Progressives tell us whence they 
 bring their testimony, seeing that they have al- 
 ready discarded what prophet and apostle have 
 said. 
 
 Who refuses to abide in Christ's teachings? 
 The man who denies that God is the Father of 
 Christ, for Christ claimed it ; the man who denies 
 that Christ is the equal of God, for Christ claimed 
 that ; the man who denies that Christ died for sin- 
 ners, Christ affirmed it ; the man who denies that 
 Christ was raised on the third day, Christ pre- 
 dicted it, and afterward proclaimed its fulfillment ; 
 the man who denies that Christ ascended bodily 
 into the heavens, Christ promised it and in the 
 presence of above five hundred witnesses accom- 
 plished it ; the man who denies that Christ is coin- 
 ing again with His holy angels to reign in the 
 earth, it is Christ's repeated assertion. There is 
 not a one of these doctrines that higher critical pas- 
 tors have not opposed and even excoriated. Fisch- 
 er did it in Berlin ; Campbell has just accomplish- 
 ed it in London. He affirms that Christ is no more 
 divine than we are; he affirms that man is not a 
 sinner, but an increasing conquerer, saying, "The 
 fall of man in a literal sense is untrue." "The doc- 
 trine of sin which holds us to be blameable for 
 deeds that we cannot help, we believe to be a
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 65 
 
 false view." Again, "We reject wholly the com- 
 mon interpretation of the atonement, that another 
 is beaten for our fault." "We believe not in the 
 final judgment, but in the judgment that is ever 
 progressing, etc." 
 
 Dr. Bettex, one of Germany's greatest schol- 
 ars, in his book,"The Bible the Word of God," 
 sums up the views of "Progressives," after this 
 manner, "According to this radical criticism is 
 there any inspiration? None! Any Trinity? 
 None ! Any fall into sin ? None ! Any devil or 
 angel ? None ! Any miracles ? None. Any law 
 from Mount Sinai? None! Any wrath of God! 
 No \ Is the death of Christ vicarious ? No ! Did 
 Christ rise from the dead ? No ! Has there been 
 any outpouring of the Holy Ghost? No! Will 
 there be any resurrection of all the dead, or a 
 final judgment? No." 
 
 But even all of this is not the end. Dr. Ly- 
 man Abbott, not many months since, before one 
 of our greatest universities, defined God as *'A 
 Force." Dr. Campbell says "The new theology 
 thinks of IT or HIM as consciousness." Here 
 is a point, at least, in which they approach "sci 
 ence" but it is the "science" of Mrs. Eddy, who 
 asks the question, "is God a person?" and an- 
 swers it, "No! God is not a person; God is a 
 principle."
 
 66 THE FINALITY 09 
 
 It would seem as if we are not far from the 
 day when ministers of the Gospel will have to do 
 as Dr. A. C. Dixon did in a convention of free- 
 thinkers in New York City. An up-to-date the- 
 ologian, in the person of a lawyer, had made an 
 eloquent address, one sentence of which was "I 
 worship the everlasting IT." When Dixon came 
 to deliver himself on "The Simplicity of the Gos- 
 pel" he said, "Brethren, if many of you are at 
 the shrine of the former speaker, let me utter a 
 word of warning; people grow like the thing 
 they worship, and the first thing you know this 
 town will be full of 'ITS'." 
 
 What shall the believing do about it? Dr. 
 Stocker, former court preacher of Berlin, says, 
 in answer to this question, "The critic's denial of 
 practically all that conservative believers regard 
 as the very foundation of Christianity, such as the 
 divine inspiration of the scriptures, the Trinity, 
 the atonement, and the divinity of Christ, virtually 
 puts them outside the pale of the historical, evan- 
 gelical church. There is no common ground be- 
 tween the old and the new schools of theology. 
 It is time to decide what ought to be done in the 
 matter. Evidently the best course would b. to 
 separate peacefully the liberals from the protes- 
 tant churches. Let them go out and organize and 
 maintain congregations after their own manner 
 and creed. Some of the churches and parishes
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 67 
 
 may be left in their hands as honesty and justice 
 demand ; but let them remain no longer in the 
 church whose faith they do not share. They re- 
 present no type of Protestant Christianity. They 
 are the teachers of a new religion." This would 
 seem to be the only course open that retains the 
 semblance of ethical conduct. "Can two walk 
 together except they be agreed?" Dr. P. S. Hen- 
 son says, "between these two schools there is the 
 width of the whole heaven ;" and Dr. A. H. 
 Strong says, "we seem to be on the verge of 
 another Unitarian defection." Why should we 
 not part in peace ? 
 
 And yet, in answer to this kindly proposition, 
 Dr. Rade, says, "We moderns will risk anything 
 rather than leave the Church." It looks a little 
 like the old story of the drunken man who had 
 made his way homeward to the point of the lamp- 
 post, to which he affectionately clung, saying, "to- 
 gether we stand ; divided I fall." And yet sad as 
 is that prospect, Conservatives must even insist 
 upon it; or else play truant to the text, ''If any 
 come unto you and bringeth not this teaching, 
 receive him not into your house and give him no 
 greeting, for he that giveth him greeting partak- 
 eth in his evil works." 
 
 THE END OF FRATERNITY. 
 Christian fraternity is not merely social. If it 
 were, Conservatives and Critics could adjust their
 
 68 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 differences, or even afford to forget and neglect 
 them. I have no creed to which my neighbors 
 must subscribe in order to be loved as neighbors ; 
 no doctrinal standards to which my acquaintances 
 must come before I call them friends. That is 
 another matter altogether! Among the Unitari- 
 ans I have some close personal friends; and so 
 among Universalists, and so with Christian Sci- 
 entists and Dowieites! But our fellowship is 
 social; it is not a fellowship of faith. The ques- 
 tion of Christian fraternity is not necessarily 
 involved. 
 
 Christian fraternity is not even ecclesiastical. 
 It is well known that men may be members of the 
 same church and not be special friends; in fact 
 in our larger churches they are not even speaking 
 acquaintances in all instances. Every great denom- 
 ination has its thousands, and even its millions 
 of members upon whose faces the most widely 
 traveled brother of that faith has never looked. 
 And, of the few he does know, there may be some 
 who belong to a local body of believers with him, 
 and yet with whom he refuses to fraternize. So 
 Christian fraternity is not a question of ecclesias- 
 tical relations. 
 
 Fraternity "in Christ" involves "the fellowship 
 of a common faith." Mark you, "The fellowship 
 of a common faith." Two people may consent to 
 the same creed and yet hate each other they
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 69 
 
 are without the "fellowship" of a common faith. 
 Two men may love each other, the one be a Uni- 
 tarian and the other an Evangelical ; they also are 
 without the fellowship of "a common faith ;" and 
 their fraternity is not the fraternity "in Christ." 
 When Charles Spurgeon quit the Baptist Un- 
 ion of England he did not do it because he hated 
 all the brethren of the Union, but because he 
 found many of them accepting and preaching 
 "another faith" than that revealed in God's Word. 
 The man who criticises Spurgeon's conduct ought 
 also to complain of John's injunction as voiced in 
 this text. Truly, as one has said, "It is not for us 
 to become judges of motive; or to defame men 
 simply because they differ from us. Neither is 
 it for us to contradict the inspired record of the 
 Word of God when it declares that 'certain men 
 became vain in their imaginations and their fool- 
 ish heart was darkened' and ''they changed the 
 truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and serv- 
 ed the creature more than the Creator, who is 
 blessed forever.' " 
 
 Paul, writing to Timothy, warned him against 
 those "men who, concerning the truth have erred, 
 saying that the resurrection is passed already," 
 and "overthrown the faith of some." Peter af- 
 firmed there will be "false prophets bringing in 
 privily destructive heresies, denying even the 
 Master that bought them .... by reason of whom
 
 7o THE FINALITY 01? 
 
 the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." John, 
 in his first epistle said, "Who is the liar but he that 
 denieth that Jesus is Christ ? Whosoever denieth 
 the Son the same hath not the Father." In his 
 Second Epistle, he calls upon us to reject the fel- 
 lowship of all such. (V. 9-10.) 
 
 The day in which evangelical Christianity so 
 far compromises with critics that He who stilled 
 the tempest by the word of his power, who fed the 
 thousands with five loaves of bread, who healed 
 the nobleman's son, who raised Jarius' daughter 
 from the dead, who restored the deaf, the blind, 
 the dumb by a word, who cleansed the leper by a 
 look, is no longer enthroned in our faith as the 
 Messiah of the prophets the Son of God, the 
 Saviour from sin the light that has shone for 
 millenniums upon the paths of men fs extinguish- 
 ed and the world is doomed. But surrender we 
 will not! Our Saviour is too precious to be be- 
 trayed into the hands of His enemies ; the Word 
 of God is too glorious to be flung away at the 
 behest of blind leaders ; our message from heaven 
 is too sweet to our sin-sick souls for us either to 
 reject the messengers or to doubt the truth they 
 delivered once for all.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 71 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION AND 
 FALSE THEOLOGY. 
 
 "In the beginning God created the heavens and 
 the earth .... And God, said, Let the waters 
 under the heavens be gathered together unto one 
 place, and let the dry land appear, and it was 
 
 so And God said, Let the earth put forth 
 
 grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing 
 fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, 
 
 upon the earth : and it was so And God said, 
 
 Let the waters swarm with swarms of living crea- 
 tures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open 
 firmament of heaven. And God created the great 
 sea-monsters, and every living creature that mov- 
 eth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their 
 kind, and every winged bird after its kind ; and 
 
 God saw that it was good And God said, 
 
 Let the earth bring forth living creatures after 
 their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts 
 
 of the earth after their kind : and it was so 
 
 And God said, Let us make man in our image, 
 after our likeness : and let them have the dominion 
 over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the
 
 72 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the 
 earth, and over every creeping thing that creep- 
 eth upon the earth. And God created man in his 
 own image, in the image of God created he him ; 
 male and female created he them." Gen. I :i, 9, 
 II, 20-21, 24, 26-27. 
 
 "By faith we understand that the worlds have 
 been framed by the word of God, so that what is 
 seen hath not been made out of things which ap- 
 pear." Heb. 1 1 13. 
 
 Our theme is "The Theory of Evolution 
 and False Theology." It may not have occurred 
 to all that the theory of evolution and false the- 
 ology are indissolubly linked together. But ev- 
 ery scientist understands, as do also intelligent 
 teachers of the Scriptures, that the theory of ev- 
 olution is not simply a question of the origin of 
 species; but, in its present-day application, pro- 
 poses to account for everything material, from 
 fire-mist to the perfected frame of the universe; 
 everything animated, from the sterilized cell of 
 lowest life to the Man of Nazareth; and every- 
 thing moral, from the sensations of an amoeba to 
 the sacred communion between God and man. 
 
 When, therefore, a biologist says that the min- 
 ister has nothing to do with the theory of evolu- 
 tion, he reveals either his ignorance of its appli- 
 cation, or his indisposition to be disturbed by an 
 adequate argument. When a professor in Natur-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 73 
 
 al Science says that people who are not constant 
 students of his specialty should not pass any 
 judgment upon its claims and contentions, he 
 disputes the right of decision by a competent 
 jury, and demands that the public close its eyes, 
 that it may the more readily swallow his deliver- 
 ances. 
 
 It may be necessary, therefore, for the man 
 who decides to think for himself, and even main- 
 tain his right to judge the findings of so-called 
 scientists, to "beg pardon;" but this formality 
 performed, we pass on to question, compare, and 
 conclude according to the individual judgment. 
 
 Every preacher of the present hour is com- 
 pelled to deal with the theory of evolution, and 
 either accept it or reject it. Its advocates have 
 invaded his realm. Prof. Metcalf, biologist of the 
 Woman's College, Baltimore, in his book "Organ- 
 ic Evolution" naively tells us that in coming to 
 the position of a dignified science the last strong- 
 hold to be taken by evolution was that of the 
 supernaturalist, "that of the man who claims that 
 supernatural agency intervenes in nature in such 
 a way as to modify the natural law of events/' 
 This opinion he thinks Darwin overthrew and 
 doomed. (See "Introduction to Organic Evo- 
 lution" p. 20).
 
 74 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 Such a suggestion simply indicates that the 
 entire company of conservative theologians are not 
 only unscientific, but are mental mossbacks, cling- 
 ing to exploded theories, preaching obsolete opin- 
 ions, and practicing doctrine long since out of 
 date. If, therefore, one of them should fail to 
 make an argument, the public ought not to be sur- 
 prised. On the other hand, if he should succeed 
 in making the theory of evolution look doubtful, 
 it might be worth while for the public to examine 
 carefully the foundations of this much boasted 
 philosophy. 
 
 At the risk of revealing our weakness in argu- 
 ment, we propose three statements concerning ev- 
 olution. First, The Theory is Unscientific; sec- 
 ond, The Theory is Unscriptural ; third, The The* 
 ory is Anti-Christian. 
 
 THE THEORY is UNSCIENTIFIC. 
 
 It is a suggestion, not a science. The prevail- 
 ing opinion that evolution is a modern scientific 
 discovery is false alike to history and to the prop- 
 er employment of speech. On the authori- 
 ty of Wallace, Lucretius, who lived a hundred 
 years before Christ, in his great poem on "The 
 Nature of Things" expressed the major part of 
 the present-day theory. He held to the molecular 
 belief, that the molecules did not come into actual
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 75 
 
 contact; defined atoms, thought that they were 
 eternal; while admitting the existence of gods, 
 he refused them any share in the construction of 
 the universe, maintaining that it had come by 
 chance, after infinite time, by random motions and 
 collisions, and he tried to account for the introduc- 
 tion of sensation into atoms. He maintained that 
 earth worms came by spontaneous generation, and 
 that in some remote period of the world's history, 
 when heat and moisture abounded, the earth was 
 filled with wombs, out of which were born living 
 things, and after the custom of many a present- 
 day biologist he contended that the very ground 
 had given existence alike to the lowest forms of 
 life, to every beast and to man. 
 
 To be sure, the modern apostles of this faith 
 Huxley, Darwin, Spencer, Wallace and others, 
 have found for it more attractive phrases; ar- 
 gued it on the ground of likelihood, progression 
 and analogy; but not one of these ever called it 
 a science. They regarded it a theory, and a theory 
 only. It is not unusual for the smaller followers 
 of great minds to far exceed their masters. The 
 leading evolutionists of the world today do not 
 speak of it as a "science;" they retain the old 
 term of Huxley, Dai* v'm, and Spencer "theory." 
 But many a preacher who is neither a specialist 
 in natural history nor in supernatural revelation, 
 finds himself involved in what he regards "the
 
 76 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 conflict between science and theology" and at- 
 tempts the reconciliation. Since the path by 
 which Science has traveled is strewn with 
 the decaying structures of discarded theories, 
 why should not Andrew White withhold his 
 endeavor until specialists in biology, geology 
 and paleontology are themselves convinced that 
 evolution is something more than a theory? 
 
 Several times in recent years we have ques- 
 tioned fairly competent exponents of this theory 
 as to whether they regarded it a "science," to be 
 answered in almost every instance, "Well, it is 
 generally adopted, the world over, as a working 
 theory for scientific investigation." Now the 
 Standard Dictionary defines "theory" after tins 
 manner "A plan, or scheme subsisting in the 
 mind, but based on principles variable by obser- 
 vation ; loosely and popularly, mere hypothesis or 
 speculation; hence an individual view." "Sci- 
 ence," on the contrary, it describes as "Knowl- 
 edge gained and verified by exact observation and 
 correct thinking." A theory may be scientific; 
 but to make it such one must produce its verifica- 
 tion by exact observation or experiment, where- 
 upon it is no longer a theory. Neither Huxley, 
 Darwin nor Spencer ever maintained that they 
 had produced such verification of evolution ! 
 
 But we go a step farther. The theory of evo- 
 lution is unproven and unprovable. Notwith-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 77 
 
 standing Darwin's "Origin of Species," in the 
 form of a book, the occurrence of a new species, 
 either by natural selection or human cultivation, 
 is unknown. By cultivation man has made the rose 
 more splendid in size, more beautiful and varie- 
 gated in color, and not a few of the flowers he 
 has even doubled ; but no man has yet produced 
 a rose from the seed of sunflower, nor from the 
 pink, nor from anything else than a rose; or 
 even been able to make a grain of rye, similar as 
 it is to the form of other cereals, bring forth oats 
 or wheat, or else than rye. A line from Genesis 
 is the law of natural history. "Every seed after 
 its own kind." The scientists of the world were 
 never so anxious, upon any single point, and 
 never wrought so assiduously to disprove it, as 
 they are to do away with this statement of Holy 
 Scripture; but their endeavors to overthrow the 
 Divine fiat have signally failed. 
 
 When a biologist who believes that all life, 
 from an amoeba to a Milton, is the product of 
 evolution, being asked if such a thing as a new 
 species by natural selection is known, answers, 
 "We think there are some snails in the Hawaiian 
 Islands that hint at it," he will not blame us if 
 we regard his investigations a little "slow." Or, 
 if he affirms that the gill slits of a human foetus 
 prove that man has ascended from sea life, we 
 answer, "That sounds fishy." If he point to the
 
 78 THE FINALITY 0? 
 
 mule in defense of his doctrines, we remind him 
 of its sterility, and make his argument asinine. 
 Not a few scientists have said, concerning the 
 mule, that with his accustomed stubbornness he 
 "blocks the way of the evolution theory." But 
 better still is the remark of Dr. A. J. Frost that 
 "the mule is the endeavor of an ass to evolute 
 himself, but he only succeeds in making a bigger 
 ass of himself." 
 
 The utter desperation to which evolutionists 
 are driven in their desire to "demonstrate" as 
 the Christian Scientist says and so be able to 
 switch from theory to science, is shown in their 
 treatment of the horse. They have dug out of the 
 earth a little animal about the size of a fox, with 
 five toes, which has some similarity to the horse, 
 and they have called him old horse eohippus; 
 and they have brought up another with three toes, 
 as big as a timber wolf, and because of certain 
 similarities they have called him a horse; and 
 then they have imagined that horse finally devel- 
 oping into the present beautiful beast of domes- 
 tic service, with one toe elongated from the knee 
 to the hoof; and in certain splints on the side of 
 his leg they find the aborted ties. The intervening 
 horses, bridging the gap between these ancient 
 animals and our black beauty, they have sought 
 in vain ! Yet they will stand before you and 
 speak with all the assurance of men who had
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 79 
 
 found the last missing link, concerning the evolu- 
 tion of the horse ! Why do they begin with that 
 little fox-like animal? In the ocean there is a 
 shrimp that has the head of a horse and his mo- 
 tions in water are much like a plunging charger. 
 Why not begin with him? At college the boys 
 used to be chargeable with having ridden a pony, 
 and if it could be proven it was worse for them 
 when they came into the professor's presence. 
 Once a cute lad, who was later a consul in one of 
 the South American Republics, bluntly remarked 
 in the presence of our professor, "I had a pony 
 last season that thirteen rode, but I gave him 
 away because this present class has nineteen big 
 fellows in it, and I thought it- would be an out- 
 rage for us all to straddle the little fellow !" But 
 that poor pony of the five toes has been straddled 
 by a thousand professors ; they have ridden the 
 toes off him, and it is little wonder that some of 
 their students have gone out to pity the pony and 
 regard the professors' conduct with ridicule. 
 
 Something similar has occurred in the attempt 
 to make a man out of a monkey. They found 
 the missing link once in "The Calaveras Skull." 
 It was 150 feet below surface. There could be no 
 doubt about it ! But when Wm. R. C. Scribner 
 confessed that he had brought it into tne mine 
 as a practical joke, scientists were ashamed. Ur. 
 W. J. Sinclair's discussion, "Reeent Investiga-
 
 8o THE FINALITY OF 
 
 tions Bearing on the Question of the Occurrence 
 of Neocene Man in the Auriferous Gravels of the 
 Sierra Nevada" confirms Scribner's claim, and 
 makes it perfectly evident that Prof. J. D. Whit- 
 ney paraded a very modern skull as that of a pre- 
 historic man. 
 
 They found the missing link in the Neander- 
 thal skeleton in Prussia, and proclaimed it three 
 hundred thousand years old ; but it turned out to 
 be only a Cossack killed in 1814. Columbia College 
 had a smart professor who dug out of Colorado's 
 soil a skeleton. It was heralded as of remarka- 
 ble antiquity, and the friable bones were being 
 paraded to the ends of the earth when some cow- 
 boys complained that the grave of their pet mon- 
 key had been rifled. I was taken into a little 
 pavilion near Manitou and was shown the petri- 
 fied (?) body of a remarkable little fat fellow 
 who had been brought up from the bottom of the 
 Colorado River. But a man needed not to be a 
 scientist, to discover that it was nothing more than 
 a figure hewn out of stone. To be sure, the 
 greatest ado has been made over the Pithecan- 
 thropus Erectus. It consists of the piece of a 
 skull and leg bone and two teeth, found in Java, 
 in 1891. Dr. Alexander Patterson says, the cubic 
 measurement of that skull is sixty inches the 
 same as that of an idiot. These specimens were 
 found at separate places and times. The skull
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 8l 
 
 is too small for the thigh bone. The age of the 
 strata in which they were found is uncertain. 
 Even Haeckel admits that the belief that this 
 is the missing link is strongly combated by some 
 distinguished scientists. 
 
 The earth has been opened at a thousand 
 points ; the sea has been explored to its bottom ; 
 biologists have had access to the very bowels of 
 both and have been animated by one determina- 
 tion the discovery of the missing link and yet 
 to the present hour they have utterly failed to 
 produce it ! We fear that it is an illustration of 
 what the Irishman said. He attended the circus 
 and was especially interested in the animals. 
 When they brought out the dromedary he ex- 
 amined the ungainly beast from head to foot ; 
 felt of the great humps to see whether they were 
 artificial or actual flesh. Being convinced of the 
 latter, he said, "Begory ; they ain't no sich ani- 
 mal !" This seems to be the truth concerning 
 the missing link. It is one thing to imagine that 
 it exists; it is another to make the demonstra- 
 tions, and science demands the latter. 
 
 Its conclusions are without premises. Wliat 
 evidence is there that the universe began in fire 
 mist? What evidence is there that life originated 
 out of death? What evidence is there that min- 
 eral became the vegetable, and vegetable became 
 the animal, and the animal became the man?
 
 82 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 What proof have we of the eternity of matter 
 beyond the atheistic desire to have it so? And, 
 if these premises are false how can conclusions 
 resting upon them be true? If within the knowl- 
 edge of man the reptile has never become a bird, 
 a fish has never become a mammal, a monkey has 
 never become a man; if the depths of the earth 
 and the sounding of the seas refuse to deliver up 
 a single instance of such a metamorphosis, what 
 are the premises of this argument? It may be 
 very convenient to push your claims back to the 
 time where the knowledge of man utterly fails, 
 but do not do violence to the splendid attainments 
 of human speech by calling such conduct "sci- 
 entific." I may have no right to object to Mr. 
 Darwin's believing that "man is descended from a 
 hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail, and 
 pointed ears ; probably arboreal in its habits, and 
 an inhabitant of the Old World," but I can not 
 be denied the right to ask him to produce some 
 evidence of his assertion. Dr. Eldridge, of the 
 British Museum, declares that that institution is 
 filled with specimens, every one of which dis- 
 proves the evolution theory. Dr. Joseph Clark, 
 after spending twenty-nine years in the heart of 
 Africa, says: "I find no evidence of evolution 
 in Africa, but positive proofs to the contrary."
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 83 
 
 THE THEORY IS UNSCRIPTURAL. 
 
 The Word nowhere warrants it. There are 
 brethren in the pulpit who have a new way of in- 
 terpreting the first chapter of Genesis, which, by 
 the way, one of my fellow-laborers has translated 
 after the following manner: 
 
 1. Primarily the unknowable moved upon 
 cosmos and evolved protoplasm. 
 
 2. And, protoplasm was inorganic and undif- 
 ferentiated ; containing all things in potential en- 
 ergy; and a spirit of evolution moved upon the 
 fluid mass. 
 
 3. And the Unknowable said, Let atoms at- 
 tract ; and their contact begat light, heat and elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 4. And the Unconditioned differentiated the 
 atoms each after its kind; and their combination 
 begat rock, air and water. 
 
 5. And there went out a spirit of Evolution 
 from the Unconditioned, and working in proto- 
 plasm by accretion and absorption produced the 
 organic cell. 
 
 6. And cell by nutrition evolved primordial 
 germ, and germ developed protogene ; and proto- 
 gene begat eozoon, and eozoon begat monad, and 
 monad begat animalculse.
 
 84 THE FINALITY Otf 
 
 7. And animalculae begat ephemra: then be- 
 gan creeping things to multiply on the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 8. And earthly atom in protoplasm begat 
 molecule, and thence came grass and every herb 
 of the earth. 
 
 9. And animalculae in the water evolved fins, 
 tails, claws and scales; and in the air wings and 
 beaks : and on the land they sprouted such organs 
 as were necessary as played upon by the environ- 
 ment. 
 
 10. And by accretion and absorption, came 
 the radiata and mollusca, and mollusca begat 
 articulata, and articulata begat vertebrate. 
 
 11. Now these are the generations of the 
 higher vertebrata in the cosmic period that the 
 Unknowable evoluted the biped mammalia: 
 
 12. And every man of the earth, while he was 
 yet a monkey, and the horse, while he was yet 
 the hipparion, and the hipparion before he was 
 an oredon. Out of the ascidian came the amphi- 
 bian and begat the pentadactyle, and by inherit- 
 ance and selection, produced the hylobate, from 
 which are the simiade in all their tribes. 
 
 13. And out of the simiade the lemur pre- 
 vailed above his fellow and produced the platy- 
 rhine monkey.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 85 
 
 14- And the plytyrhine begat the catarrhine, 
 and the catarrhine begat the anthropoid ape and 
 the ape begat the longimanous orang, and the 
 orang begat the chimpanzee, and the chimpanzee 
 evolved the what-is-it? 
 
 15. And the what-is-it? went into the land of 
 Nod, and took him a wife of the longimanous 
 gibbons. 
 
 16. And in the process of the cosmic period 
 were born unto them their children the anthro- 
 morphic premordial types. 
 
 17. The homunculus the prognathus ; the tro- 
 glodyte, and the autochthon, the terragon, these 
 are the generations of primeval man. 
 
 1 8. And primeval man was naked and not 
 ashamed, but lived in quadrumanous innocence, 
 and struggled mightily to harmonize with the 
 environment. 
 
 19. And by inheritance and natural selection 
 did he progress from the stable and homogeneous 
 to the complex and the heterogeneous; for the 
 weakest died, and the strongest grew and mul- 
 tiplied. 
 
 20. And man grew a thumb for that he had 
 need of, and developed capacities for prey. 
 
 21. For behold, the swiftest animals got 
 away from the slow men, wherefore the slow 
 animals were eaten and the slow men starved 
 to death.
 
 86 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 22. And as the types differentiated the weaker 
 types continually disappeared. 
 
 23. And the earth was filled with violence ; 
 for man strove with man, and tribe with tribe, 
 whereby they killed off the weak and foolish 
 and secured "the survival of the fittest." 
 
 Moses again appeals to the public, "Choose 
 you this day which you will have" what the 
 Spirit saith, or what the self-styled Scientist as- 
 serteth ! 
 
 At many points evolution is anti-scriptural. 
 The majority of evolutionists, certainly the most 
 able ones among them, contend for the eternity 
 of matter. The Scriptures assert the opposite. 
 "By faith we understand that the worlds have 
 been framed by the Word of God, so that which 
 is seen hath not been made out of things which 
 appeared." (Heb. 11:3). 
 
 Almost to a man, evolutionists contend that 
 species are the product of natural selection. Ten 
 times in the first chapter of Genesis the law 
 "after its own kind" is declared, and it covers 
 every form of life, from the blade of grass to the 
 god-like occupants of Eden. It is little wonder, 
 therefore, that when such men as Crawford H. 
 Toy, George Burnam Foster, B. Fay Mills, and 
 R. J. Campbell adopt the evolution theory in to- 
 to, that they immediately begin to treat the Word 
 of God as though it were without authority.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 87 
 
 And it is hardly to be wondered at that Prof. 
 Haeckel, the most noted evolutionist, should pro- 
 ceed, in his "Riddles of the Universe" to read 
 God out of it altogether. However, there is one 
 thing to be said in favor of these men. They 
 are intelligent enough to see the inharmony be- 
 tween the Scriptures and this present-day pop- 
 ular theory; and honest enough to say, "We pre- 
 fer evolution to the Book." It is easier to hold 
 such men in esteem than it is to respect those 
 who go up and down the land telling us that evo- 
 lution is true, and so is the Bible. Such teachers 
 seem to belong with the boy Dr. John Henry 
 Barrows is reported to have met in India. "A 
 native lad had attended the Christian schools and 
 learned there the shape and situation of the 
 earth, but in his Hindoo home he had been taught 
 the Hindoo cosmogony, namely, that the earth 
 was circled by salt water, and that by a circle of 
 earth, and these by successive circles of sweet 
 cane juice and other soft drinks, with intervening 
 circles of land. Dr. Barrows asked the boy which 
 belief he would hereafter hold? He replied that 
 he "would believe both." 
 
 THE THEORY AND FALSE THEOLOGY. 
 
 The intimate relation between this theory 
 and theology is becoming more and more appar-
 
 THU FINALITY OF 
 
 ent. It is doubtful if there is a single skeptical 
 professor in the Old World or the New, who is 
 not also a fairly full-fledged evolutionist. The 
 theological result is perfectly evident in such 
 books as "The Finality of the Christian Religion" 
 and the "New Theology." 
 
 According to evolutionists, God is a force, 
 and those ministers who have accepted the evolu- 
 tionary theory of the natural universe, have lost 
 their personal heavenly Father in consequence. 
 The shibboleth of such professed Christian 
 preachers is one with that of the atheistic philoso- 
 phers when they have found a common view-point 
 in evolution. It is a remarkable fact to find Dan- 
 iel, when he comes to describe the coming Prince 
 who shall oppose God, and magnify himself be- 
 yond all, literally saying, "But in his estate he 
 shall honor the god of force." (Dan. 11:38). 
 Are our Critics the forerunners of the anti- 
 Christ? 
 
 Evolution makes Christ only a remarkable 
 man. One calls Him "the only man;" another 
 believes that he was the "mental product of ex- 
 cessive admiration." "The Flower of the Race" 
 is so beautiful an expression, that quite a few of 
 them agree in its adoption. But, whatever the 
 expression, essential deity is never intended, and 
 to admit that He was begotten by the Holy 
 Ghost would introduce supernaturalism, which
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 89 
 
 they repudiate. Foster's astonishment that 
 "Belief in the virgin birth of Jesus should ever 
 have been held as a cardinal article of the Chris- 
 tian faith" is shared by a majority of the Huxley- 
 ites. 
 
 His resurrection from the dead is either de- 
 nied outright or else explained away by affirming 
 that it was not physical. His promise to come 
 again at the end of the Age and introduce a mil- 
 lenium wherein He himself shall "reign from sea 
 to sea and from the rivers to the ends of the 
 earth" they repudiate to a man, and so fulfill the 
 prediction of Peter, "In the last days mockers 
 shall come with mockery, walking after their own, 
 lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his 
 coming; for from the day that the fathers fell 
 asleep all things continue as they were from the 
 beginning of creation." 
 
 This theory makes sin essentially a virtue. 
 Man is not a fallen creature. One of their best 
 exponents, a good representative of a great uni- 
 versity, recently affirmed in my presence that "to 
 tell children they were not by nature children of 
 God, was irrational ; to instruct them that the 
 essential thing was the evolution of the life 
 within them, was sanity." To such teachers 
 "sin" is not "a transgression of the law of God," 
 but simply false strokes in the struggle to be free 
 from self-limitations and opposing environments.
 
 go THE FINAUTY OP 
 
 While compelled to admit that a crab-apple will 
 never produce pippins unless the latter be grafted 
 in, they yet insist that the child which the Scrip- 
 tures declares is "conceived in sin and shapen in 
 iniquity" can become a saint without "the grafting 
 in" of the new nature, or the regenerating work of 
 the Holy Ghost. To them, Paul's description of 
 sin as "exceedingly sinful," is without justifica- 
 tion, and the prophet's statement "The soul that 
 sinneth it shall die" should be changed to "The 
 soul that sinneth is searching after life." 
 
 To be sure some of the greater minds among 
 them do not go to these lengths. Henry Drum- 
 mond held to the necessity of the new birth, but 
 for that matter, Drummond's "Natural Law in 
 the Spiritual World" is the very antithesis of the 
 full-fledged evolution theory. 
 
 The resurrection is even more offensive to ev- 
 olutionists, than is regeneration. It just as cer- 
 tainly introduces the supernatural, and it brings 
 the work of the Spirit before the natural vision 
 where men can see and judge for themselves. 
 His appearance to "above five hundred brethren 
 at once" (i. Cor. 15:6) is boldly disputed, and 
 the explanation of their testimony is found in the 
 fervor with which these deluded disciples loved 
 their leader. 
 
 It makes the cross only a criminal mistake. 
 From their view-point it was not according to
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM QI 
 
 prophecy, nor did it in any wise profit the race. 
 It was only a notable one among the many in- 
 stances where men, actuated by human hatred 
 and selfishness, have ignorantly slain their friend. 
 As a rule, they scoff the notion that "He bore 
 our sins on the tree," and will have none of the 
 teaching that "by the shedding of His blood" we 
 have secured our "remission." Christ crucified, 
 is unto these, as to the Jews of old, "a stumbling 
 block ;" and as unto the Gentiles of former times, 
 "foolishness." 
 
 To them redemption is a misleading term. 
 The thought of God buying back, with His pre- 
 cious blood, that which man had forfeited to the 
 Adversary is little better than a jest. "Salvation 
 must be by self-development !" they insist. Paul, 
 when he dares to say, "By grace are ye saved, 
 through faith, and that not of yourselves," is 
 simply mistaken. 
 
 What then, is the conclusion of the whole 
 matter? Some writer has summed it up after 
 this manner: "A pantheistic god, instead of a 
 personal God. A human savior instead of a di- 
 vine Savior. Infallible scholarship instead of an 
 infallible Bible. Reformation instead of regener- 
 ation. Culture instead of conversion. The nat- 
 ural in all things, the supernatural in nothing." 
 These are the result of modern scholarship ! Cer- 
 tainly, as Dr. A. H. Strong, of Rochester Semi-
 
 92 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 nary, says: "We need a new vision of 
 the Savior to convince us that Jesus is 
 lifted above space and time, that His existence 
 antedated creation, that He conducted the march 
 of Hebrew history, that He was born of a virgin, 
 suffered on the cross, rose from the dead, and 
 now lives forever more, the Lord of the universe, 
 the only God with whom we have to do, our Sa- 
 vior here and our Judge hereafter. Without a 
 revival of this faith our churches become secular- 
 ized, mission enterprise will die out and the can- 
 dlestick will be removed out of its place, as it was 
 in the seven churches of Asia, and as it has been 
 with the apostate churches of New England."
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 93 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ARE THE SACRED SCRIPTURES 
 UNSCIENTIFIC? 
 
 "Thy word is true from the beginning." (Ps. 
 119:160.) This is an expression of the Psalm- 
 ist that must be explained away before one can 
 pit Science and the Sacred Scriptures against 
 each other. Since the purpose of preaching is 
 interpretation of the Word, rather than its anni- 
 hilation, we shall not attempt either to dispute the 
 veracity of this statement or to spiritualize it into 
 some strange and unnatural explanation. Ar- 
 thur Pierson thinks the Psalmist meant to say 
 that from the first word the Sacred Scriptures 
 are true. 
 
 But the modern method of study objects to 
 any assumption. It insists that every theme and 
 thing shall be subjected to whatever tests are 
 essential in the establishment of its claims. To 
 this, intelligent believers take no exception. If 
 the Bible will not bear investigation ; if scrutiny 
 discloses shortcomings; if research disproves its 
 assertions; if true Science discredits its clear 
 claims, let it fall. We could forfeit it without a
 
 94 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 tear; join in digging its grave without regret, 
 and return to the duties of life smitten by no se- 
 rious bereavement. 
 
 True, it is serious business to discredit a book 
 which has accomplished for the world what the 
 Bible has wrought ; but it would be more serious 
 to believe a lie, or even to accept an irresponsible 
 chart in making one's way over the sea of life. 
 True, the Bible "was not written to show how 
 the heavens go;" but rather "how to go to 
 heaven;" it is not a text book on science, but a 
 guide-book for godly living. And yet, when it 
 addresses itself at all to a subject of scientific 
 concern, it should speak the truth, if it makes 
 the claim of inspiration ! When we study the 
 words of men, however wise they may be, we ex- 
 pect to come upon mistake. When we read, and 
 properly understand, what "God hath spoken" 
 we anticipate no such results. "Let God be 
 found true; but every man a liar." "He that 
 believeth not God hath made him a liar." 
 
 "But," we are told, "God has two books. 
 One we call 'Nature,' the other 'Revelation;' 
 that He is just as certainly the author of the 
 former as of the latter; that one is the work of 
 His hands and the other the fruit of His lips." 
 What Jesus, when once he stooped down and 
 wrote in the sand, expressed, we do not know. 
 But can any man imagine that His writings in
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 95 
 
 the sand were out of harmony with His spoken 
 addresses, and is it possible that an all-wise God 
 has produced in Nature and in Revelation con- 
 tradictory volumes? 
 
 We have no fear whatever that the Scrip- 
 tures must be maintained at the expense of 
 Science; and we are equally persuaded that true 
 Science will never be established at the cost of 
 Scripture. The thing to be feared is, that the dust 
 of false reasoning (of which the air is full today) 
 will get into the eyes of men, and make it im- 
 possible for one to read from the Sacred Page, 
 and for another to see the meaning of the open 
 book of Nature ; and so for either, to discern the 
 perfect agreement between God's Word and 
 God's Work. 
 
 First or all, then, let us give 
 
 THE DEFINITION OF THE TERMS INVOLVED. 
 
 W hat is Science? Can we improve upon 
 the Standard Dictionary's statement "Knowl- 
 edge gained and verified by exact observation and 
 correct thinking ; especially as methodically form- 
 ulated and arranged in a rational system?" 
 That definition takes you at once out of the realm 
 of speculation. It disposes of such terms as 
 "theory" and "hypothesis," making them possible 
 servants of Science, but never its synonym. It
 
 96 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 is everywhere admitted that almost every asser- 
 tion made in the name of Science a hundred 
 years since, is now out of date; and while this 
 clearly demonstrates our progress, it also sug- 
 gests that we are still in the hypothetical and 
 theoretical stage. No one would dispute that 
 Sir Isaac Newton was somewhat of a scientist, 
 nor yet that Tyndall was equally worthy the 
 name, and yet when they take exactly opposite 
 positions concerning the refraction of light, both 
 may be wrong, but both cannot be right. Hux- 
 ley and Darwin are names that somehow sit 
 easily together in the same sentence, and yet 
 these men, working in almost the same realm, 
 are not always in agreement. The ex- 
 planation is easy "the verification of knowl- 
 edge by exact observation and correct thinking" 
 is the highest accomplishment of which the hu- 
 man mind is capable, and not every man who 
 cries "Eureka" has found it. This is not to in- 
 veigh against the sincerity of investigators, nor 
 even to deride their conclusions, but only to call 
 attention to the most patent fact of their expe- 
 rience! "Knowledge gained and verified by ex- 
 act observation and correct thinking" will nev^r 
 be overthrown by mortal men, nor yet by God. 
 God would dethrone Himself by such an en- 
 deavor !
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM 97 
 
 What is Scripture? Paul defines "all Scrip- 
 ture" as that which is "God-breathed," and the 
 process of it is "that holy men of old spake as 
 they were moved (or borne along) by the Holy 
 Ghost!" Knowing himself to be of that com- 
 pany, Paul affirms, "We speak not in words 
 which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the 
 Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with 
 spiritual words." If one runs through the Old 
 Testament he will find God everywhere assum- 
 ing the Authorship of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 The phrases are like these: "The Lord spake 
 unto Moses saying, etc." "These are the words 
 of the covenant which the Lord commanded 
 Moses to make with the children of Israel." 
 "The Lord spake unto Joshua." "The words 
 of the commandment of the Lord." Not 
 scores, but hundreds of times, does God 
 claim to be the Author both of thought and lan- 
 guage in the Holy Book. David declares, "The 
 Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word 
 was in my tongue." (2 Samuel 23:2.) To me it 
 is the most remarkable evidence of the skepti- 
 cism of the age that because there are some diffi- 
 culties in the theory of Verbal Inspiration men 
 are willing to throw it away, and adopt such no- 
 tions as are now current, to the effect that God 
 simply stimulated the thought, but did not deter- 
 mine the speech ; that some parts of the Bible are
 
 98 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 literally true, and others are only allegory; that 
 some are fact, others only fiction ; that some are 
 to be treated with credence and others with criti- 
 cism; that all must come to the test of one's 
 "inner consciousness," and at that court be either 
 accepted or rejected. 
 
 The same men who so define "Inspiration" or 
 "Illumination" or whatever it is, would go into 
 court tomorrow to insist upon the settlement of 
 an estate, in which they were named as heirs, 
 on a verbal basis. They would call the attention 
 of attorneys and judge to what was "written," 
 and unless they had some unrighteous end to be 
 conserved, they would permit no departure from 
 the very -words in which the testator had ex- 
 pressed himself.. It is little wonder, therefore, 
 that the New Testament writers, who may be 
 conceded to have known what the Scriptures 
 were, refer to the Old Testament more than 
 eighty times, as that "which is written." Never 
 once did they abandon the literal interpretation of 
 the same. 
 
 If the words of the Old Testament 
 were "the words of God," perhaps no believer, 
 at least, will dispute that the New Testament 
 stands upon the same level. And so the Bible 
 does not "contain the Scriptures ;" the Bible is the 
 Scriptures, God's revealed Word, which can 
 hardly have been given to men with less care
 
 HIGHER CRITICISM 99 
 
 than any intelligent, faithful father would show 
 in framing the article that bequeathed his pos- 
 sessions to his children. If, in civil courts, the 
 lightest word of the testator is the weightiest 
 law, who will dare to treat with contempt, 
 thought or phrase found in the Divine Will? 
 
 Mark you, there is a decided difference be- 
 tween the plain statement of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures and some absurd opinion. It may be, that 
 in the centuries of the past an uninstructed Chris- 
 tian conceived the world as having a flat surface, 
 the sky as a roof and the stars as holes 
 through the same. Kepler, who was something 
 of a scientist, once expressed the conviction that 
 the world was a living animal. Is that assertion 
 to be confounded with Science? Fanciful inter- 
 pretations in the one realm are just as common 
 as in the other ; and they neither prove nor dis- 
 prove anything. I do not have to harmonize the 
 Scriptures with the absurd statements of every 
 man who may speak in the name of Science ; and 
 I do not have to harmonize Science with the as- 
 sertions of every man who may mistakenly appeal 
 to Moses, or even to Christ. Science is God's 
 voice in Nature ; the Scriptures are God's voice in 
 grace, and it does not fall to the lot of any mor- 
 tal man to harmonize them ; the harmony is in 
 Him. He cannot contradict Himself!
 
 ioo THE FINALITY OF 
 
 To say the least, it is a strange procedure 
 when a man proclaims as his theme "The Har- 
 mony between Science and Scripture" and then 
 shows how that comes to pass by just quietly 
 disposing of the latter; by saying, for instance, 
 that the first chapter of Genesis is "the best that 
 Moses knew, the impression of that early age, 
 but a mistake none the less." Is that harmony? 
 Is it not rather, annihilation? It may let you 
 out of your difficulty, but you escape at the ex- 
 pense of inspiration; and to the unspeakable loss 
 of the people. There used to be an eccentric 
 preacher in Kentucky well-known to the author. 
 He did no great amount of study, and yet he 
 commonly preached with unction. One day he 
 found himself before an audience with no unction 
 on hand; even thoughts refused to come. He 
 floundered through a few ill-formed sentences, 
 and then, squarely facing his audience, he said, 
 "Brethren and sisters, you think 1 have gotten 
 into the brush, and can't get out, don't you? 
 Well, I'll show you; we'll just look to the Lord 
 and be dismissed." But let it be understood that 
 when you dismiss the claims of the Sacred Book, 
 and walk out of your difficulties, you have lost 
 the divine message and left the hungry multi- 
 tudes unsatisfied.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. IOI 
 
 GENESIS IN SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 
 
 It will scarcely be disputed that so far as men 
 have seen any inharmony between the Sacred 
 Scriptures and Science, the first chapter of Gene- 
 sis has been made the storm center. On that ac- 
 count I invite your athtention to this part of the 
 Word, and dare the assertion that its careful 
 study, instead of demonstrating the inharmony 
 between Science and Scripture, will reveal the 
 most undreamed of agreement in these great 
 books of God. 
 
 First of all, think of the argument from fifteen 
 facts in order. 
 
 First fact, in order, God created the heavens. 
 Second fact, in order "and the earth;" 
 third water ; fourth light ; fifth firmament ; 
 sixth grass ; seventh herb ; eighth tree ; 
 ninth appearance of heavenly bodies; tenth 
 fish ; eleventh moving things ; twelfth fowls ; 
 thirteenth creeping things ; fourteenth cattle ; 
 fifteenth man. 
 
 Now, the latest science will consent to this or- 
 der of creation. The heavens were certainly made 
 first ; the earth certainly came second ; water cer- 
 tainly appeared third, light fourth ; firmament- 
 next; grass thereafter; the manifestation of sun 
 and moon -ninth ; the appearance of fish tenth ; 
 moving things eleventh ; fowls twelfth ; creep-
 
 102 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 ing things thirteenth; cattle, etc., fourteenth, 
 and last, man. 
 
 Other writers have called attention to the un- 
 speakable significance of this order when consid- 
 ered before the law of permutation. The Stand- 
 ard Dictionary says, "The number of permu- 
 tations of any given number of things, taken all 
 at a time, is equal to the product of the natural 
 numbers from one up to the number given, inclu- 
 sive." 
 
 Now if Moses only spake the science of his 
 times, he knew practically nothing of the order 
 of creation. Consequently he must guess at it. 
 He must guess whether the heavens or the earth 
 were first formed. In his day no man imagined 
 that the heavenly bodies were bigger than the 
 earth, and all men supposed that they moved 
 about it. How then does it happen that Moses, 
 when he came to guess which was first formed, 
 the heavens or the earth, mentioned the heavens 
 in the primary place? You say, "Well it was an 
 easy accident, since there was only one other alter- 
 native." Did you ever hear the story of the Irish- 
 man who, meeting a neighbor said, "We have a 
 fine baby at our house this marning; guiss 
 whither it is a boy or a gurl ?" "A girl," said the 
 neighbor." "No, Sir, guiss agin." "Well, I 
 say a boy !" "Well, neow, who tole you ?" To be
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. IOJ 
 
 sure Moses had one chance out of two on this 
 arrangement. But he got it right ! 
 
 Third fact the appearance of water. Here 
 Moses' task was not so easy, for it was not one 
 in three, but one in six, according to the law of 
 permutation. It could have been, the heavens 
 first, water second, earth third, but that was not 
 true; it could have been, the earth first, water 
 second, and the heavens third, but that was not 
 true. It could have been water first, the earth 
 second, and the heavens last, but that was not 
 true. It could have been the earth first, the heav- 
 ens second and water last, but that was not true. 
 In other words there are six different arrange- 
 ments of these relations, 1-2-3, l ~3~ 2 '> 2 ~ I -3> 2 ~3~ l > 
 3-2-1 ; 3-1-2. But Moses somehow struck the 
 right one. A good guesser ! Introduce light and 
 you make twenty-four such relations. But Moses 
 hit it again. One chance in twenty-four, but he 
 was the lucky man. 
 
 When you get the fifth you have 120 possible 
 orders. Strange to say Moses does not miss it! 
 
 When you get to the sixth, you have 720. In 
 other words there are 719 chances against you. 
 But Moses got it right! 
 
 When you get to the seventh, you have 5,040. 
 In other words 5,039 chances against you. But 
 Moses hit it!
 
 IO4 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 When you get to the eighth you have 40,320. 
 Not a glorious prospect of striking it straight, 
 but still Moses accomplishes it! 
 
 When you get to the ninth you only have one 
 chance in 362,880. 
 
 When you get to the tenth, you have only one 
 chance in 3,628,800! 
 
 When you get to the eleventh, 39,916,800. 
 
 When you get to the fifteenth, one chance in 
 1,307,674,367,900. And yet, strange to say, in 
 the whole arrangement, he never misses ! 
 
 Go dig up Bob Ingersoll, and give the poor 
 fellow a chance to apologize for ever having spok- 
 en of the "mistakes of Moses." Bob should not 
 come alone! 
 
 But this is not the end. We make bold to as- 
 sert that from the beginning to the end of Gen- 
 esis, ist Chapter, there is not a scientific mistake. 
 It is scientific that the heavens were created first, 
 and the earth second. The very latest Science 
 would tell you that the earth was "waste and 
 void," and the "darkness," resulting from the 
 nebulous state, "was upon the face of the deep." 
 For a long time Science spoke of the third verse 
 as certainly involving a mistake, "And God said, 
 Let there be light and there was light." This, in 
 advance of the appearance of the sun or moon. 
 They supposed that the sun was the only source
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 105 
 
 of light, but finally Laplace declared it to be a 
 scientific certainty, that in the condensation of the 
 originally formless chaos, there was such mole- 
 cular and chemical action as must have emitted 
 light. No wonder Boardman, in his "Creative 
 Week," says, "Why will the Academy vote Moses 
 a blunderer for declaring that light existed be- 
 fore the sun appeared, and yet vote Laplace a sci- 
 entist for affirming precisely the same thing?" 
 
 The next point of scientific attack was upon 
 the fifth verse, "And there was evening, and there 
 was morning, one day." It was boldly asserted 
 that Moses supposed all this change from chaos 
 to cosmos took place in twenty-four hours. But 
 mark you, Moses does not refer to twenty-four 
 hours at all ! "From evening to morning" is on- 
 ly twelve hours. You will not have fin- 
 ished this chapter until it is made perfectly 
 clear that Moses is not speaking of twenty- four 
 hour days. He knew the law of herbs, yielding 
 seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit af- 
 ter their kind," that these things were not ac- 
 complished in a day ; that it took seasons to pro- 
 duce fruit, and even many years, to mature trees 
 and make them reproductive. And yet that whole 
 process he mentions as in the third day. What 
 is God's Day, according to the Bible? In the 
 second chapter the entire creation, from start to
 
 IO6 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 finish, is mentioned as having occurred in a day. 
 It could not, therefore, according to Moses, mean 
 twenty-four hours. What is a "yom" with God? 
 Peter tells us "One day is with the Lord as a 
 thousand years." (2 Pet. 3:8). Moses, himself, 
 in the ninetieth Psalm, declares that "a thousand 
 years in God's sight were but as yesterday when 
 it is passed, and as a watch in the night," and 
 that he is speaking of this very period is evident 
 in the context, where he says, "Before the moun- 
 tains were brought forth and thou gavest birth 
 to the earth and the world, even from everlasting 
 to everlasting (from Olan to Olam: or, era to 
 era), thou art God." 
 
 But surely Moses was mistaken in the eighth 
 verse, "And God called the firmament heaven?'' 
 Even Mr. Huxley slipped here, by charging 
 Moses with believing that heaven was a solid 
 substance, resting like a canopy over the earth. 
 But Mr. Huxley was not a Hebrew scholar; 
 hence his mistake. The Hebrew word translated 
 "firmament" means "expanse." Can you beat it 
 by your latest scientific expression? 
 
 The ninth verse also reveals the remarkable 
 wisdom vouchsafed to this man, "Let the waters 
 under the heaven be gathered together in one 
 p 1 ace, and let the dry land appear." There was 
 not a man in the earth at that time that .knew.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 
 
 or could have known, that all the seas were linked 
 together, whereas the continents are divided. But 
 exploration has proven it. Dana, in his Manual of 
 Geology, says that while the continents are separa- 
 ted, the seas occupy one bed. As to the order 
 of the appearance of life, Genesis and geology 
 are exactly together, beginning with grass, and 
 ending with man. There is not a geological 
 mistake in Genesis. 
 
 Equally remarkable is the fact that instead of 
 speaking of the sun and moon as giving their 
 light from the first, Moses holds back their rays 
 until the fourth day; at which time he does not 
 declare they were created, for that belonged in the 
 opening sentence, "In the beginning God created 
 the heavens" but they were made to "divide the 
 day from the night, "and to be for signs and for 
 seasons and for days and for years." Many sci- 
 entists believe that the earth took on its present 
 angle of axis at this very period in its develop- 
 ment, when it cooled to the point where the vapors 
 condensed and fell upon it as water. And we 
 know that without that axis-angle, determining 
 its relation to the sun and moon, our seasons 
 would fail, and we would return to an ice-age ! 
 
 Now as to whether the law of generation, as 
 set forth in Genesis, "every seed after its kind" 
 is true, or whether the origin of species is by "nat- 
 ural selection," the whole weight of discovery is
 
 loS THE FINALITY OF 
 
 with Genesis and against Darwin. The truth of 
 Genesis we know, from the lowest form of grass 
 to soulful man ; everything is bringing forth "af- 
 ter its kind." We have seen that law executed 
 ten thousands times and in millions of forms. 
 The creation of a new species, by natural selec- 
 tion, no man has ever yet seen. Why, therefore, 
 should we imagine that there is any conflict be- 
 tween Scripture and Science? At every point 
 where it is possible to institute a comparison that 
 is reliable, an utter agreement appears! The 
 rocks, from the lowest strata to the last laid 
 down, confirm the facts of God's creative week. 
 
 "A Glory guilds the Sacred page 
 
 Majestic like the sun, 
 It gives a light to every age, 
 
 It gives but borrows none. 
 
 The hand that gave it still supplies 
 The gracious light and heat: 
 
 His truths upon the nations rise ; 
 They rise, but never set." 
 
 Permit me to mention some other inexplicable 
 instances of Science in Scripture. Harvey, in 
 modern times, discovered the circulation of the 
 blood, and declared its relation to life. Moses 
 affirmed it three thousand years ago "The life
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. IOO, 
 
 is in the blood." You have heard Galileo glorified 
 for having discovered that this part of the uni- 
 verse was heliocentric and not geocentric, as the 
 ancients supposed; and Newton honorably men- 
 tioned for his great discovery of the law of gravi- 
 tation. The Scriptures declared both a few thous- 
 and years before these brethren were born. Job 
 declared of the day-spring, that it "takes hold 
 of the ends of the earth; it is turned as clay to 
 the seal" (38-13), and as for gravitation, while 
 scientists and churchmen alike were adopting 
 theories of the earth's support, akin to that which 
 the Hindus now hold, namely, that it was a flat 
 plane, with possible stories above and below, held 
 up by the heads of elephants, with their tails turn- 
 ed out, and their feet resting on the shell of an 
 immense tortoise, and the tortoise in turn on the 
 coil of a snake, Job was remonstrating in these 
 words, "He hangeth the earth upon nothing/' 
 (26:7) the very deliverance of your latest Sci- 
 ence! 
 
 It is only in very modern times that any man 
 imagined the atmosphere to have any weight, and 
 we still employ the phrase, "light as air" and yet 
 we know that it has a weight of fifteen pounds 
 to every square inch; and modern science could 
 almost tell you exactly what was the awful pres- 
 sure upon the face of the globe twenty-five thous- 
 and miles in circumference. This, however, was
 
 no THE FINALITY OF 
 
 not information to the Old Testament writers! 
 Job, one of the most ancient of them all, says of 
 God, that "he makes a weight for the wind ; yea, 
 he meeteth out the waters by measure." Galileo 
 discovered that air has gravity ; but thirty centu- 
 ries before him Job affirmed the same. It would 
 seem, therefore, that inspiration is as accurate 
 as experimentation. 
 
 It is only within a few years that weather 
 bureaus have had any occasion ; that- men imag- 
 ined storms of cloud and wind, and waves of heat 
 and cold obeyed unchangeable laws, and might, 
 therefore, be tabulated and reported even in ad- 
 vance of their arrival. But Solomon understood 
 it and wrote long since, in Ecclesiastes i :6, "The 
 wind goeth toward the south and turneth about 
 unto the north. It turneth about continually in 
 its course, and the wind returneth again to its 
 circuits." It is only by modern discoveries that 
 men imagined that there were other sounds than 
 those which our ears catch; but now we know 
 that when we pass thirty-eight thousand vibra- 
 tions per second, the ear cannot follow, and ev- 
 ery heavenly body, in its motions, is making mus- 
 ic, so that Job was not mistaken when he declar- 
 ed "the morning stars sang together," nor David 
 when he declared of Jehovah, "Thou makest the 
 morning and the evening to rejoice." 
 
 Arthur Pierson, after having called attention
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. Ill 
 
 to some of these remarkable instances of agree- 
 ment, says Shakespeare was right when he wrote : 
 
 "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold- 
 
 est, 
 
 But in his motion, like an angel sings, 
 Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubim. 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls ; 
 But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." 
 
 We candidly believe that if the men who are 
 spending much time in seeing what can be said 
 against the Scriptures, should assume a friendly 
 attitude and search with a kindred diligence for 
 its remarkable defenses, they could find them 
 with utter ease, and would be shortly confirmed in 
 the "faith once delivered" and able to boast with 
 the poet: 
 
 "I paused one day beside the blacksmith's door 
 And listened to the anvil ring the evening's chime. 
 And looking in I saw upon the floor, 
 Old hammers, worn with beating years of time." 
 
 'How many anvils have you had/ said I, 
 'To wear and batter out these hammers so?' 
 'Just one,' he answered, with a twinkling eye, 
 'The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.' '''
 
 112 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 "And so, I thought, the Anvil of God's Word 
 For ages skeptic blows have beat upon ; 
 Yet, though the noise of infidel was heard 
 The anvil is unworn, the hammers gone !" 
 
 SOME POINTS WHERE COMPARISON IS IMPOSSIBLE. 
 
 Not to all subjects to which Science speaks 
 do the Scriptures address themselves. It is equal- 
 ly true that the Scriptures discuss many subjects 
 with which Science has naught to do. There are 
 points in human experience where the micro- 
 scope, the scalpel, the telescope tell us nothing. 
 They transcend all scientific investigation ! Tyn- 
 dall admitted that the problem of the universe 
 would probably never be solved ! And yet that 
 problem is not more difficult than are the prob- 
 lems of sin, substitution and salvation. 
 
 A man may easily say that Moses was mis- 
 taken when he declared how sin came into the 
 world. But who will attempt to demonstrate it 
 and how ? We know that sin is here. The Bible 
 affirms that it came through an evil spirit; that 
 man accepted his suggestion and continues to ac- 
 cept it, and so suffers the penalty of violated law. 
 Who has presented a saner explanation of sin? 
 
 It is the height of folly to speak of "the 
 Scriptures as teaching that the innocent must
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 1 13 
 
 suffer for the sins of the guilty," "that children 
 are condemned because of their parents' blun- 
 der." It never hints such a thing, and it never 
 did. The second commandment does not say that 
 God is visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon 
 their innocent children, but it does affirm that 
 "judgment falls upon the third and fourth gen- 
 eration of them that hate him," and why shouldn't 
 it, unto generations of generations? Shall men 
 hate God and escape judgment? The law, when 
 first declared was, "The soul that sinneth it shall 
 die." Is not that law righteous ? The Scriptures 
 are very careful to follow that statement with 
 another from the pen of Ezekiel, "The son shall 
 not bear the iniquity of the father; neither shall 
 the father bear the iniquity of the son. The 
 righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him ; 
 and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon 
 him." 
 
 It may be easy enough to set up untenable 
 theories of sin, and assign them either to the 
 Sacred Scriptures, or to the conservative de- 
 fenders of the same, when neither have ever 
 spoken aught to warrant such caricature. I have 
 been in the ministry for twenty-six years. My 
 daily associations, of an intrinsic character, have 
 been with the conservative wing of the church, 
 and in that entire time I have never heard Je- 
 hovah described as a God who visited the sins
 
 114 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 of guilty parents upon the heads of innocent 
 children, by any one of them. On the contrary, 
 they have depicted Jehovah as a God of infinite 
 love, punishing no innocent men or women ; even 
 pitying the sinner and proffering him grace in 
 Jesus Christ. Will the man who sets himself 
 up as a student of Science, and a preacher of *.V 
 up as a student of Science, and a preachei of the 
 Sacred Scriptures, object; and, if so, has he a 
 better view of God to present?. 
 
 Again, if the God who breathed upon the 
 waste of a darkened world, and converted its 
 chaos into cosmos, and quickened its death into 
 life, is willing to do the same for a man "dead 
 in trespasses and sins," will men object, or the 
 scientist dispute His right ? Cannot He of whom 
 Milton sang, saying, 
 
 "Thou from the first 
 
 Wast present, and with mighty wings outstretch- 
 ed, 
 
 Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, 
 And madest it pregnant," 
 
 quicken our dead souls that they shall live again ? 
 If we cannot bind the influences of the Pleiades, 
 shall we attempt to set limits to the work of 
 God's own Spirit, or demand that He bring 
 His endeavors within the limits of natural ex- 
 planation ?
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 115 
 
 Is it not written, "Except one be born of wa- 
 ter and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the King- 
 dom of God. And that which is born of the 
 flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spir- 
 it is spirit," and are we not enjoined to "marvel 
 not" about it, since "the wind bloweth where it 
 will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but 
 knowest jiot whence it cometh and whither it 
 goeth," and told, "so is every one that is born of 
 the Spirit ?" Just how it happens that the drunken 
 man who staggers into a sanctuary and listens to 
 the Gospel of the Son of God, and goes out, never 
 to drink again, supported, in his new sobriety, by 
 the sense of Divine love, Science may never be 
 able to explain; but that does not disprove what 
 you and I have seen. 
 
 Just how it happens that the woman who has 
 walked in the ways of wickedness, is suddenly 
 roused to repentance by the rehearsal of the di- 
 vine goodness, scientists may not even see, but the 
 Son of Man rejoices and the angels are made hap- 
 py by the sight of His face. You can deny the di- 
 rect creation of man in the divine image if vou 
 like, but you will never be able to disprove it. 
 You may deny the unity of the race, but even 
 there the evidences are against you ; you may 
 deny the description of the fall, but sin remains 
 unexplained. You may deny that there is any 
 supernaturalism , and yet, as against that, we say
 
 Il6 THE FINAUTY OF 
 
 that he who starts along the path clearly marked 
 in Sacred Scripture will go from sin to salvation ; 
 from salvation to sanctification, and from sancti- 
 fication to the eternal fellowship of the Father. 
 
 Years ago we went through the Hoo- 
 sac Tunnel for the first time. Did you ever hear 
 how it was constructed ? There started two com- 
 panies of men to work on opposite sides of the 
 mountain, but the survey had been so accurate- 
 ly made that when the men met midway, the 
 walls of the excavations were not an inch off 
 the line. , But the man who wants to turn home 
 to God and heaven has more than an accurate 
 line marked by survey ; he has a well-beaten road 
 lying full before him. Others have gone over it 
 by the thousands; yea, by the millions, and as 
 the prodigal who trudged his way back to the 
 farm house, from which he had been so long sep- 
 arated, by a well-traveled road, found his Father 
 coming forth to meet him, so shall the lost man 
 find God if he but turn his feet to the path upon 
 which there falls the light of this Word !
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FINALITY OF THE HIGHER 
 CRITCISM. 
 
 "I charge thee in the sight of God, and of 
 Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the 
 dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 
 preach the word: be urgent in season, out of 
 season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long 
 suffering and teaching. For the time will come 
 when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, 
 having itching ears, will heap to themselves teach- 
 ers after their own lusts ; and will turn away their 
 ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables." 
 (2 Tim. 4:1-4). 
 
 When one reads the epistles of John he is pro- 
 foundly impressed with the thought that the 
 Spirit of God anticipated some of the most hurt- 
 ful heresies of these latter times and answered 
 them entirely, two thousand years before they 
 were born ; such, for instance, as the unscriptural 
 doctrine of "Perfectionism" preached in some 
 parts, and that masterpiece of Satan, "Christian 
 Science," and its allied movements, "Spiritual-
 
 Il8 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 ism," "Theosophy," "New Thought," etc. Paul, 
 as a contributor to the New Testament exceeds 
 even John, and while there is scarcely any error 
 of doctrine or practice which he passes over with- 
 out reproof, he was peculiarly employed by the 
 spirit of God to anticipate and reprove attacks 
 to be made upon "the Word of God." Our text is 
 only one of many which the great Apostle ad- 
 dresses to this evident end. 
 
 Any natural interpretation of this text makes 
 it applicable to the subject in hand, namely, "The 
 Finality of the Higher Criticism." 
 
 In glancing the text through we call your at- 
 tention to four of its suggestions The Higher 
 Criticism and the Word ; The Higher Criticism 
 and the War; Higher Criticism and Apostasy 
 and Higher Criticism as a Propaganda. 
 
 HIGHER CRITICISM AND THE WORD. 
 
 "Preach the Word." The great questions of 
 the present controversy, in the theological world, 
 are these, "What is the Word?" and "What of the 
 Word?" "Is the Bible a divinely inspired mes- 
 sage ?" "Are its historical statements reliable ?" 
 "Is its moral code binding?" 
 
 To all of these questions Higher Criticism ad- 
 dresses itself. We propose to bring you its 
 answers from a man who is regarded
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 119 
 
 in many quarters as a radical; and yet from a 
 book which comes more nearly revealing not alone 
 the concept and custom of this critical method, 
 but its final and logical conclusions, than any 
 other put forth up to the present. We refer to 
 George Burman Foster's volume, "The Finality 
 of the Christian Religion." 
 
 According to it, these three assertions will 
 not be disputed: (i) Higher Criticism denies 
 the inspiriation of the Word. (2) Higher Crit- 
 icism disputes the reliability of the Word. (3) 
 Higher Criticism rejects the authority of the 
 Word. 
 
 Higher Criticism denies the inspiration of the 
 Word. On page 63 Dr. Foster says, "The doc- 
 trine of the inspiration of the Scriptures .... is 
 of pagan origin." And on page 87 the author 
 asserts that the doctrine of Verbal Inspiration 
 was first given up, then inspiration as a divine 
 guidance in the writing down of what was super- 
 naturally revealed was surrendered ; that the next 
 step was to think of it as "a mere negative pro- 
 tection from error ;" but it was impossible to stop 
 there, and so they concluded that this protection 
 referred only to the "religious content." But 
 since the "religious content" was often but the 
 work of mortal men, it was decided that "only 
 Jesus was inerrant ;" and then that His inerrancy
 
 i2o THE FINALITY OF 
 
 applied only to the "region of religious truth." 
 But, as if even this was too great a concession 
 for the Critics to make, Dr. Foster remarks, "The 
 inspiration of the Book is untrue historically and 
 impossible psychologically." 
 
 Higher Criticism disputes the reliability of the 
 Word. This is the inevitable result of logic. 
 Without a divine inspiration it is impossible that 
 the Scriptures should be reliable. Dr. Foster ac- 
 cepts that consequence and carries the result to 
 its inevitable end, affirming that even Jesus took 
 on the form attributed to Him in the New Tes- 
 tament through "emotional reconstruction." (p. 
 396.) His infatuated followers "dehumanized 
 and spiritualized Him." Their affectionate feel- 
 ings for Jesus went so far that "no man can tell 
 where facts end and embellishment of facts be- 
 gins," (p. 396). Adding to this argument, losses 
 sustained by translation from one language to an- 
 other, Dr. Foster concludes, "We do not surely 
 know that we have any strictly authentic words 
 of Jesus." (p. 400). 
 
 If the New Testament writers, who were con- 
 fessedly eye-witnesses of the historical facts of 
 Christ's life, are incapacitated to write the tri'th 
 by reason of their ardent admiration of the Man 
 of Nazareth, and what they have written may 
 not be known to us because of the difficulties of
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 121 
 
 translation, how much more unreliable is the en- 
 tire Old Testament, which deals in many instances 
 with ages to which the writers did not belong, 
 and has reached us by a process of translation 
 fraught with far greater dangers? 
 
 There is another, and natural step to be taken, 
 and notwithstanding the gravity of its conse- 
 quences, it is accepted by the Critics. 
 
 Higher Criticism rejects the authority of the 
 Word. Dr. Foster goes so far as to affirm that 
 "there is no evidence up to 150 A. D. that any 
 New Testament writers were supposed to be even 
 sacred." (p. 106). He asserts, "There does not 
 seem to be any passage of literature in the sub- 
 apostolic generation that warrants the conclusion 
 that an apostolic letter was appealed to as a 
 sacred writing." To be sure, the Doctor is a 
 metaphysician rather than a studen* of Sacred 
 Writ, and he may be excused for hi,> ignorance 
 of what Peter wrote in his second epistle. 3:15- 
 1 6, quoting from Paul, and referring to " the 
 wisdom given him." "Wherefore, beloved, see- 
 ing that ye look for these things, give diligence 
 that ye may be found in peace, without spot and 
 blameless in his sight. And account that the 
 long suffering of our Lord is salvation; even 
 as our beloved brother Paul also, according to 
 the wisdom given him, wrote unto you; as also
 
 122 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 in all his epistles, speaking in them of these 
 things, wherein are some things hard to be under- 
 stood, which the ignorant and unsteadfast wrest, 
 as they do also the other scriptures, unto their 
 own destruction." 
 
 And yet, the men who deny the inspiration of 
 the Word, dispute its reliability and reject its au- 
 thority are not altogether willing to give it up, 
 retiring it to some shelf of neglect, and treating 
 it as obsolete. Somehow or other, often having 
 slain it, they are loath to lay it away. We wonder 
 whether, after all, if they are not a little alarmed 
 lest, if they did this, the world might lose its 
 moral light, and the much boasted Reason, in 
 which they have trusted, return to its groveling 
 as it has done in those parts of Italy and Spain 
 where priests and Pope have taken the Bible from 
 the people, and in Mexico and Cuba and South 
 America, where Reason has been untrammeled by 
 any special knowledge of the Word, and even, 
 as in fair France, where the goddess of Reason 
 was enthroned one hundred years ago, to witness 
 the immediate Reign of Terror. Henry 
 Rogers, in his "Eclipse of Faith," hints what 
 would happen were the Critics successful and the 
 Bible once for all flung away by men. He re- 
 cords a dream entitled, "The Blank Bible," 
 in which the world had awakened one morn-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 12,3 
 
 ing to discover that every copy of the Sacred 
 Scriptures in all the earth had been suddenly 
 withdrawn from among men, and blank books 
 left in their stead. And then he depicts the dis- 
 appointment of the unsaved that even the way 
 of salvation no longer existed for them; the de- 
 privation of old age that it no longer had the 
 promises upon which to pillow its head ; the uni- 
 versal anxiety concerning coming morals, and so 
 on. Dr. Arthur Pierson, speaking to this re- 
 puted dream says, 'What if every Bible should 
 turn to blank paper, and all that other books 
 have borrowed from it vanish likewise! What 
 if all that it has wrought in man and for man 
 could be obliterated from human character and 
 history ! all ideas and ideals of chastity and 
 charity, equity and ethics, rhercy and magnanimi- 
 ty ; all the motives for morality and piety, heroism 
 and martyrdom, which it has supplied !" W r ho 
 can conceive the wreck and ruin that would reach 
 into every heart and home, church and communi- 
 ty ? And yet such is the logical process of High- 
 er Criticism. If its conclusions were accepted 
 today, the scene in the streets of Ephesus would 
 necessarily be re-enacted, and the works of those 
 who practiced the magical art of imposing 
 "myths" and "mistakes" upon men in the name 
 of inspiration, would be burned to white-ash in
 
 124 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 the sight of all. Are the Critics ready to take 
 the responsibility of such a procedure? Yet 
 wherein is the difference between heaping your 
 Bibles in one colossal pile and firing them, and 
 accepting the conclusions of a George Burman 
 Foster? To some of us, at least, the process of 
 firing were far preferable to the retention of a 
 book whose claims of heavenly birth are false, 
 whose commands are only the invention of men, 
 whose supposed historical records are simply 
 myths, or at the most a combination of fact and 
 fancy ; and whose plan of salvation, culminating 
 in a Christ the sinner's substitute is purely a 
 delusion. 
 
 But we are not fully convinced that such is 
 our dilemma, for our text speaks to another sub- 
 ject, namely, 
 
 HIGHER CRITICISM AND THE WAR. 
 
 "Preach the word; be urgent in season, out 
 of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long- 
 suffering and teaching." It is just possible that 
 this procedure is not out of date; it is just possi- 
 ble- that Paul is a better instructor than Foster; 
 it is just possible that we have a right to pit this 
 ancient scholar, who was converted from infideli- 
 ty to "the faith that is in Christ" against "the 
 modern man" who has turned from Christ to the
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 125 
 
 infidelity of Rationalism ; and that "reproof," "re- 
 buke" and "instruction" are not out of place for 
 even a Higher Critic. 
 
 To be sure, Higher Criticism seriously ob- 
 jects to this procedure. 
 
 It excites controversy but expects exemption 
 from reproof. There was a time when our Crit- 
 ics were not much given to controversy. All 
 that they claimed for their effusions was "a ser- 
 ies of tentative suggestions." Even now they are 
 careful to employ suave speech, and condone the 
 offense of denying inspiration by enconiums on 
 the "moral majesty" of Jesus; and the "superior 
 literary character" of some of the sixty-six 
 books. Their procedure reminds an English wri- 
 ter of the executioner who bowed down before 
 Charles I, kissed his hand, and begged his pardon 
 for the unpleasant business in which he was en- 
 gaged, but neverheless beheaded him straight- 
 way. Referring to the incident Dr. George 
 Lorimer reminds us that today "Infidelity, wear- 
 ing a mask and uttering courtly words, is sharp- 
 ening the axe with which to take olf the he?d 
 of Christianity." If Dr. Foster is to be accepted, 
 the Head of Christianity is off already. And 
 yet when he is reproved he whines; when he 
 is told he has no place in an evangelical pulpit 
 or an evangelical denomination lie is offended;
 
 126 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 and his defenders stand up in their pulpits on 
 the following Sunday and affirm that "if his op- 
 posers dared they would burn him at the slake." 
 It is too bad that a man who occupies a Univer- 
 sity chair must be reproved by hi? brethren ; anj 
 yet if Peter in his impetuosity resented the first 
 arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, perhaps the mod- 
 ern believer may be pardoned for refusing to 
 stand by in silence while the risen Christ is "cru- 
 cified afresh and put to an open shame/' 
 
 It raises a rebellion, but objects to any rebuke. 
 "Rebellion" is the word we mean to employ, for 
 these men are no longer aliens; th-.y are in the 
 camp. They insist upon retaining the uniform 
 of Christ's army. They take the banner of Jesus, 
 inscribed with Kis name, and bear it above their 
 own heads. They, like Absalom, while swearing 
 loyalty to the government of the king, are indus- 
 triously seeking the disaffected and organizing 
 against the day of the king's overthrow. Why 
 should they object to rebuke? Conservatives have 
 not provoked this controversy. These Goliaths 
 have been bestirring themselves and have been 
 saying, "Come to us and we will give thy carcass- 
 es to the birds." While a stone from a sling does 
 not feel good, David is not altogether to blame 
 when he answers the challenge. Is the house- 
 holder who refuses to have his house spoiled to
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. I2/ 
 
 be regarded ungracious and even contentious? 
 Is the student who takes his stand before the 
 door of his library and objects to having people 
 purloin volumes at their pleasure to be con- 
 demned as having incited battle ? Is the Christian 
 believer, who rebukes a critic that would tear his 
 Bible into shreds and dump the remainder into 
 the ash heap, to be written down as intolerant and 
 me ash heap, to be written down as intolerant and 
 charged with mental martyrdom? To be sure it 
 is a free country, and yet there may be some limit 
 to license. Dr. Dixon tells the story of a man 
 who was taking his gymnastic exercises on the 
 public street. As he widely flung his arms he 
 struck the nose of a passer-by. Instantly the fel- 
 low landed a blow at the base of the ear. When 
 the athlete complained that this was "a free 
 country'' and he ought to be permitted to take 
 his gymnastics at his pleasure, it was re- 
 joined, "It is a free country; but where 
 my nose begins your liberty ends." The believer 
 regards the Bible as valuable above any individ- 
 ual life ; and a blow against it is a deeper wound 
 than can be inflicted upon his person. The man, 
 therefore, who makes this attack, should under- 
 stand forever that he must expect rebuke. Tim- 
 othy cannot easily turn truant to his commission, 
 and he is commanded to "Guard the sacred ora- 
 cles." In the opinion of Conservatives at least,
 
 128 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 the epistle of Jude is still inspired and by him 
 they are exhorted to "contend earnestly for the 
 faith which was once for all delivered unto the 
 saints." 
 
 It essays to teach, but resents conservative ex- 
 hortation. "Exhort, with all longsuil'ering and 
 teaching." Dr. Foster argues (p. 163) that as the 
 fathers were mistaken in their interpretations of 
 the faith, and opposed the progress of science, 
 so are their sons doing. He likens the position 
 of the Conservatives to that of the ecclesiastics 
 who persecuted Galileo; to the opinion of John 
 Calvin that the "heavens, sun and moon move 
 about the earth;" and to the notion of Fromun- 
 dus that if the earth rotated "buildings would fly 
 off with such rapid motion that men would have 
 to be provided with claws, like cats, to enable 
 them to hold fast to the earth's surface." But the 
 Doctor forgets that one can go back into so-called 
 science and recall even more ludicrous mistakes. 
 When did we learn that the world was not on 
 a turtle's back, or borne by the shoulders of At- 
 las? If the interpreters of the Scriptures made 
 mistakes, and they did, what about the 
 interpretations of the so-called science of the 
 present? What science of twenty-five years 
 ago is still retained in all of its particu- 
 lars ? If the mistakes of past theologians are to be
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. I2O, 
 
 thrown into the faces of the present-day Biblical 
 scholars, are the mistakes of metaphysicians and 
 so-called scientists of yesterday to be ignored in 
 the question of the present time shibboleth? If the 
 Rationalists who dethrone God and repudiate the 
 Scriptures in France, see a reign of terror in 
 flagrant lusts, disintegration of life and society, 
 can a professor David Schmidt, of Cornell, 
 stand up today and tell us that "Christianity has 
 failed to adapt itself to the spiritual needs of 
 man;" "that the supernatural in religion is fool- 
 ishness ;" "there is no throne beyond ;" "no life," 
 and the world escape the bitter fruits of such fol- 
 ly formulated in the name of science? It is 
 nothing short of desecration of this good term 
 "science" when men put it to such uses. "The 
 heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firma- 
 ment showeth His handiwork." Neither in the 
 one nor the other is there a solitary conflict with 
 the faith revealed in Sacred Writ. 
 
 "In Regions here they all rejoice 
 And utter forth a glorious voice, 
 Forever singing as they shine 
 The hand that made us is Divine."
 
 I3O THE FINALITY OF 
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM AS AN APOSTASY. 
 
 "The time will come when they will not en- 
 dure sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, 
 will heap to themselves teachers after their own 
 lusts." 
 
 It is an apostasy from, sound doctrine. At 
 every single point fundamental to the faith of 
 the believer Higher Criticism parts company 
 with the Scriptures. The Bible says, "Sin is the 
 transgression of the law." Foster says, "Sin is 
 error; a defect in knowledge." (p. 187). The 
 Bible teaches that our salvation inheres in Christ's 
 substitution, "He bare our sins in his own body 
 on the tree." Foster says, "Salvation consists in 
 rectification of knowledge." The Bible insists 
 that sound doctrine is essential to our sanctifica 
 tion . "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy 
 word is truth." Foster says, "The thing to be 
 set right is not a set of ideas but the bent of the 
 will. The agency to be employed is not now 
 'sound doctrine' so much as sound personality." 
 The Bible puts into the lips of Jesus these words, 
 "No man cometh unto the father but by me." 
 Foster repudiates it by saying, "God is as good 
 as Jesus. Then we may have the faith whs Mi the 
 gospel requires faith in God the Father, in his 
 fatherly grace in forgiving sins, and in an eternal 
 life." (p.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 13! 
 
 It is an answer to those "having itching ears." 
 But having "itching ears will heap to themselves 
 teachers after their own lusts." The world is full 
 of people who want to hear some new thing. The 
 fact that Higher Criticism is a novelty is Its 
 chief attraction. George Ade is much given to 
 slang, but he often expresses the soundest philos 
 ophy in the same. In his fable, "The Preacher 
 who Flew His Kite" he hits off this weakness of 
 human nature. (The capitals are Ade's.) A 
 particular parson was conscious that "he 
 was not making a hit with his congrega- 
 tion ;" and he knew that "there must be something 
 wrong with his Talk." He had been trying to talk 
 "in a clear and straightforward Manner, omit- 
 ting Foreign Quotations" and putting up for illus- 
 trations "such Historical Characters as were fa- 
 miliar to his Hearers, putting the stubby Old 
 English words ahead of the Latin, and rather 
 flying low along the Intellectual Plane of the Ag- 
 gregation that chipped in to pay his salary. But 
 the Pew-Holders were not tickled. They could 
 Understand everything he said, and they began 
 to think he was Common." So he studied the 
 situation and on the Sunday morning following 
 "got up in the Lookout and read a text that didn't 
 mean anything." "Then he sized up his Flock 
 with a Dreamy Eye and said : 'We cannot more
 
 132 GHE FINALITY OF 
 
 adequately voice the Poetry and Mysticism of 
 our Text than in those familiar Lines of the great 
 Icelandic Poet, Ikon Navrojik:' 
 "To hold is not to have 
 Under the seared Firmament, 
 Where Chaos sweeps, and Vast Futurity 
 Sneers at these puny Aspirations 
 There is the full Reprisal." 
 
 "When the Preacher concluded this Extract from 
 the Weil-Known Icelandic Poet, he paused and 
 looked downward, breathing heavily through his 
 Nose, like Camille in the Third Act." The ven- 
 erable harness dealer was nodding approvingly. 
 "Having wiped his brow, he took a turn at Qua- 
 rolius, who he claimed had "disputed the Conten- 
 tion of the great Persian Theologian Ramtazuk, 
 that the Soul, in its reaching out after the Un- 
 knowable, was guided by the Scriptural Genesis of 
 Motive rather than by mere Impulse of Mental- 
 ity." Ade says, "The Preacher didn't know what 
 all This meant, and he didn't care." But the pew- 
 holders were "On in a minute." "He talked it off 
 in just the Way that Cyrano talks when he gets 
 Roxane so Dizzy that she nearly falls off the 
 Piazza." Quoting copiously from "the Great 
 Poet Amebius" and reciting "eighteen lines of 
 Greek" and then growing more versatile still, he
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 133 
 
 illustrated from the "Celebrated Poet of Ecua- 
 dor" and rose to a climax by getting "rid of long 
 Boston Words that hadn't been used before that 
 Season." "He grabbed a rhetorical Roman Can- 
 dle in each Hand and you couldn't see him for the 
 Sparks." After this he "sank his Voice to a 
 Whisper and talked about the Birds and the 
 Flowers" and "there wasn't a dry Glove in the 
 Church." "Everyone said the Sermon was Su- 
 perfine and Dandy." The only thing that worried 
 the congregation was that "to retain such a 
 Whale it might have to Boost his Salary." Then 
 Ade draws his moral, which is commonly to the 
 point, "Give the people what they Think they 
 want." "The time will come when they will not 
 endure the sound doctrine, having itching ears, 
 heaping to themselves teachers after their own 
 lusts." 
 
 Higher Criticism is in line tvith the lusts of 
 the modern man. Theodore Parker, the free 
 thinker, explained his success in attracting crowds 
 on the ground that he preached "a theology which 
 was acceptable to human nature." That is the 
 curse of Higher Criticism. A. J. Gordon says, 
 "Liberalism is the religion of human nature. It 
 does not make stern and rigid claims on men; 
 it does not hold them up to strong convictions 
 on such subjects as sin and retribution and the
 
 134 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 need of regeneration. Hence, when men get care- 
 less and easy-going in their opinions they drift 
 into what is called 'liberalism' as inevitably as 
 water runs down hill. You never find men drift- 
 ing into high-Calvinism, and you never will till 
 you find water running up hill, and iron floating 
 upward in the air." The press has recently re- 
 ported the erection of a monument in the North 
 Benton Cemetery, Ohio. Chester Bedel, the fa- 
 mous infidel, who boasts that he exceeds Bob In- 
 gersoll in his unbelief, and who is reputed to 
 have made four trips to the Holy Land for data 
 with which to disprove the Bible, has erected 
 this stone. It is a representation of himself, 
 with his foot upon the volume of the Sacred 
 Scriptures. Few are so intense in their opposi- 
 tion to its holy precepts; but is not the attitude 
 the very one occupied by many of the so-called 
 "Critics" of the hour? 
 
 HIGHER CRITICISM AS A PROPAGANDA. 
 
 "And will turn away their ears from the truth, 
 and be turned unto fables." 
 
 Higher Criticism makes capital of unwar- 
 ranted concessions. Conservatism has unques- 
 tionably blundered. When its prophets sur- 
 rendered the theory of Verbal Inspiration they
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 135 
 
 discarded the very teaching of the Word itself, 
 and unnecessarily conceded the main point in the 
 controversy. There were many good men among 
 us who thought to accommodate their theories 
 of inspiration to the demands of the Criticj by 
 saying, "If God did not give the words of Scrip- 
 tures, He at least inspired the thought." But 
 Foster deserves approval for having so clearly 
 shown that when this concession is made it is 
 easy to force the fight to the point where no sort 
 of inspiration remains. Manifestly, if God did 
 not think enough of this Book to personally su- 
 pervise its thought and expression, so that it 
 would voice His mind exactly, it is hardly worth 
 while for men to make much of it. 
 
 When Conservatives affirm that "the mod- 
 ern miracle is not possible" they provide Critics 
 standing ground from which to contend against 
 the ancient miracle; and they have made good 
 use of it. The Bible teaches the former as clear- 
 ly as the latter, and if we may not trust it in the 
 one instance, we have no right to insist upon its 
 claims in the other. The Conservative questions 
 whether the sick man, who rose after prayei, 
 was really healed of the Lord. Mr. Foster agrees 
 with him and says, "apply your principles to an- 
 cient as well as modern times," adding, "To me it 
 would be a hard, insufferable yoke of the letter,
 
 136 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 were I required to confess that Jesus stilled the 
 storm on the sea with a word ; or that he walked 
 on the surface of the water without sinking." 
 ("The Finality of the Christion Religion," p. 
 139.) Conservatives have talked about the evolu- 
 tion of a life ; and keeping the children from ever 
 going into sin, so that they would not need con- 
 version. Critics have accepted the conces- 
 sion, and insisted that the old faith which regards 
 "conversion as a miracle" "will give way to a 
 more continual and healthy religious develop- 
 ment, to be interpreted as 'order' and not 'mir- 
 acle.' " (p. 146). Conservatives have questioned 
 whether Christ's promise to return from heaven 
 is to be accepted literally. Critics have taken an- 
 vantage of that doubt to deny that He ever went 
 to heaven, and scout the notion that He ever 
 even rose from the dead. Dr. Foster declares 
 with reference to Jesus' resurrection, "there is 
 evidence, therefore, that it is not the soul's hope 
 of salvation;" that it may be even "alien to the 
 essentials of Christianity." (pp. 135-6). 
 
 If there ever was an hour in which Conser- 
 vatives should see the inevitable result of com- 
 promise with doubt, and concession to unscrip- 
 tural criticism, that hour is now. We have 
 really provided some of the seeds which they 
 have sown in the great world-field, and for the
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 137 
 
 awful harvest of skepticism Conservatives can- 
 not be altogether blameless. 
 
 The propaganda of Higher Criticism substi- 
 tutes doubts for dogma. Christ dealt in no doubt. 
 His apostles never framed a skeptical sentence. 
 Higher Critics boast that they deal in "no 
 dogma." Foster says, "We are saved by doubt 
 as well as by faith." Surely this is "a new the- 
 ology." A man doubts whether the Bible is in- 
 spired and it helps him. He doubts whether 
 Christ was begotten by the Holy Ghost and it 
 strengthens him. He doubts whether Christ ever 
 rose from the grave and his character is con- 
 firmed. He doubts whether Christ ever wrought 
 a miracle and it has a blessedly miraculous ef- 
 fect upon him. He doubts whether Christ ever 
 ascended up to the right hand of God, and it lifts 
 him nearer to that position. He doubts whether 
 Christ ever shall return to the earth and rule 
 from sea to sea, and it exalts him to new 
 supremacy. "New Theology" is the name ! Some- 
 one tells the story of a cat that set out to 
 learn the secret of happiness. She met succes- 
 sively an ox chewing the cud, a bee gathering 
 nectar, a bird singing to its mate, and in answer 
 to her question how to be happy, each gave a 
 characteristic reply. The ox bade her chew the 
 cud; the bee, make honey; the bird, perch on a
 
 138 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 bough and sing. But as she could do none of 
 these things she sought farther. At last she 
 came to an owl, and he advised her to meditate. 
 The advice seemed sensible. But what about? 
 The owl answered "Our race has observed that 
 the owl comes from the egg; and yet the egg 
 comes from the owl; hence the question arises, 
 which first existed, the owl or the egg ? I ponder 
 perpetually upon this question," said the owl. 
 "But," returned the cat, "how are we ever to 
 find out?" "Find out," said the owl; "we never 
 can find out. The beauty of the question is 
 that its solution is impossible." It remained for 
 Higher Criticism to build its religious faith upon 
 the same basis. 
 
 But, having found a resting place for its 
 soul, it could not therewith be content. True 
 meditation is almost certain to result in exploita- 
 tion, and Criticism must speak. The ancient 
 prophets and apostles taught; and Paul enjoins 
 upon Timothy, "Do the work of an evangelist; 
 fulfil thy ministry." The modern man must not 
 come short in this, and so Criticism converts its 
 opinions into a propaganda. 
 
 It provides fables for the fulfilment of one's 
 ministry. This is the charge of the text. "They 
 have turned aside unto fables." With fables they 
 attempt to fulfill their ministry. To them the
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 139 
 
 Bible is "fabulous ;" confessedly so. To them the 
 superhuman birth of Christ is "fabulous." His 
 miracles are "fabulous;" His omniscience is "fab- 
 ulous;" His ascension and second coming are 
 "fabulous;" the theory of substitution is purely 
 so; in fact, Christ himself is fabulous. Foster 
 dares to liken the Messiahship of Jesus Christ to 
 the modern deception of a Santa Claus. (p. 434). 
 This, then,, is the climax of the whole matter! 
 Accept such a foundation for your faith if you 
 like, "but as for me and my house, we will serve 
 the Lord." We will accept as the foundation of 
 our faith "The apostles and the prophets, Christ 
 Jesus himself being the chief corner stone," and 
 join with Theodore Cuyler in saying, "This Bible 
 is all the dearer, not only because it has pillowed 
 the dying heads of father and mother, but because 
 it has been the sure guide of a hundred genera- 
 tions of Christians before them. When the boast- 
 ful innovators offer me a new system of belief 
 (which is really a congeries of unbelief), I say to 
 them, 'the old is better.' Twenty centuries of 
 experience, shared by such intellects as Augus- 
 tine, Luther, Pascal, Calvin, Newton, Chalmers, 
 Edwards, Wesley and Spurgeon, are not to be 
 shaken by the assaults of men, who often contra- 
 dict one another while contradicting God's 
 truth."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOME DEFINITIONS OF THE NEW 
 THEOLOGY. 
 
 "And they took hold of him and brought him 
 unto the Areopagus, saying, May we know what 
 this new teaching is which is spoken by thee?" 
 Acts 17:19. 
 
 It is quite impossible to pay one's respects to 
 all Athenian theologians of the hour ; and equally 
 as needless to acquaint one's audience with all 
 the latest philosophies of religion. When, how- 
 ever, a man perforce his personal ability or his 
 important position, appears in the Areopagus of 
 modern thought, with a novel theology, it may 
 be worth while to ask again, "May we know what 
 this new teaching is which is spoken by thee?" 
 
 Some time since R. J. Campbell, pastor 
 of the City Temple, London, loomed large 
 in the public press. This was due to the com- 
 bined circumstances of personal capability and 
 official distinction. It has been said that some of 
 the English papers are now apologizing for hav- 
 ing paid Mr. Campbell more attention than his 
 mental worth warranted; but those American
 
 142 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 newspapers who had much to say concerning 
 Prof. Geo. B. Foster, need not join their English 
 brethren in this apology, for while Foster in "The 
 Finality of the Christian Religion" writes in a 
 more pompous style, and by repeated quotation 
 and appeal conveys the impression of wider re- 
 search, Mr. Campbell is his companion in the 
 new theology, and more than his peer in original 
 thought and felicitous expression. Like Dr. Fos- 
 ter he assumes to be blazing a new path for 
 searchers after the truth; like him, also, he in- 
 dulges in a philosophy of religion to the exclu- 
 sion of Biblical theology; and still more like him 
 he regards all Conservatives as out of date, and 
 all creeds, built upon Bible statements, as obso- 
 lete. In the face of the fact that Conservatives 
 hold the most eminent pulpits in the world, and 
 that his great predecessor, Joseph Parker, 
 passed away but yesterday, he unhesitatingly pro- 
 claims, "The world is not listening to theologians 
 today; they have no message for it; they are on 
 the periphery, not at the center of things; the 
 great rolling river of thought and action is pass- 
 ing them by" "The New Theology," page 48. 
 This statement, of course, justifies his plea for a 
 "new theology," and it may not be profitless to 
 give consideration to what he has to say of such 
 subjects as the Holy Scriptures, the God of Israel,
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 143 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, Sin and Salvation, and the 
 Judgment to come. 
 
 THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Mr. Campbell falls into the error, common to 
 our times, of making "the place occupied by Jesus 
 Christ the ultimate question for the Christian 
 religion." In this mistake he has the companion- 
 ship of many a Conservative. Critics have so 
 often asserted that Christ was the starting point 
 in our holy faith, that the more conservative 
 brethren have grown so used to the expression 
 as to forget that it involves a falsehood. Christ 
 is basal in our religion ; "other foundation can no 
 man lay." But, back of foundation-laying is the 
 work in the great quarries the hewing of the 
 stones ! The Sacred Scriptures are the quarries 
 of truth! Destroy them, and no Christ remains 
 to the "modern man !" Only as you work in them 
 does Christ come before you ; only as you "handle 
 them aright" is His character evident enough to 
 be an inspiration. Those are intelligent people, 
 therefore, who write down as the first article of 
 their faith, "We believe that the Holy Bible was 
 written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect 
 treasure of heavenly instruction ; that it has God 
 for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth 
 without any mixture of error for its matter.
 
 144 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 Therefore it is, and shall forever remain, the 
 supreme standard by which all human conduct, 
 creeds, and opinions, should be tried." It is little 
 wonder that Campbell's Christ is an intellectual 
 and moral phantom! When once a man has put 
 dynamite into the quarries and blown them to 
 atoms, he can not be expected to bring out of 
 that dust-heap a great foundation stone! The 
 best that he can do, thereafter, is stucco work, 
 or possibly pebble dash. No one who reads after 
 Mr. Campbell can deny that he has destroyed 
 the quarries. In proof of this, I call your atten- 
 tion to his definitions of Scripture. 
 
 He rejects the authority of the Scriptures. He 
 decries the tendency to bow to any external au- 
 thority, whether of "church," or "statement of be- 
 lief," or a supposed "infallible book" (p. 174). He 
 affirms "the true seat of authority is within, not 
 without the human soul." If he is right in this, 
 every man that sails the high sea of life, is far 
 more poorly equipped for a successful voyage, 
 than is the modern sailor. The latter is provided, 
 from the hydrographic office, a chart 
 showing the safe waters to be studied in 
 the darkest day and in the blackest night! But 
 if there be no external authority in the Word of 
 God, the immortal soul is not so equipped! It 
 goes out to learn the truth, "little by little," as Mr.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 145 
 
 Campbell himself expresses it, and to learn by 
 bitter experience of mistakes, of storm, of shoals, 
 of shipwreck. The drunken man, reeling through 
 the streets, in his search for home, is no more un- 
 certain in his movements than are those people 
 who have flung away the Scripture-chart, and 
 put their trust "in their own divine nature to 
 enable them to follow the truth." Africans are 
 of the same divine (?) nature as the Americans, 
 and yet those of them who know nothing of the 
 Word of God wander aimlessly in sin, and wal- 
 low in the sloughs, while their own black breth- 
 ren who have become familiar with this Book, 
 find it "a lamp to their feet : a light to their 
 pathway." It is difficult to be patient with a man 
 who is himself in all that goes to make him civil- 
 ized, in all that has effected in him any culture, 
 in all that has created for him any Christian 
 ideals the product of the Bible, when one hears 
 him asserting his independence of the very foun- 
 tains of his strength. Dr. Osier's proposition to 
 chloroform one's parents, out of whose lives he 
 came, when they have passed fifty, is virtuous 
 beside his behavior, who having derived his char- 
 acter from the Bible, turns about to deny the au- 
 thority and stigmatize the teachings of the same. 
 Again Campbell declares "Belief in the 
 infallible Book is impossible" ("The New The-
 
 146 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 lgy" P a e J 78). He charges it with irrec- 
 oncilable "contradictions," with "the most san- 
 guinary exhortations;" he expresses doubt as to 
 whether we should ever have heard of the Old 
 Testament "if it had not been for Jesus," and de- 
 fines "the New" "as only a statement of what 
 some good men thought about Jesus and His 
 Gospel at the beginning of Christian History" 
 ("The New Theology," p. 178-79). 
 
 We have had many men, in modern times, 
 who have made remarkable statements ; not a few 
 of them have been remarkable for the folly they 
 contained, but no one of them all has ever ex- 
 ceeded Mr. Campbell's statement concerning the 
 Old Testament Scriptures. The most advanced 
 critics have conceded the antiquity of the Old Tes- 
 tament, and Mr. Campbell is almost the first to 
 hint that this collection of sacred books, begin- 
 ning with Genesis and ending with Malachi, re- 
 ceived its sacred character with the coming of 
 Jesus, or was rescued from death by his appeals 
 to the same. On the contrary, unless one deny 
 the veracity of the New Testament altogether, 
 Jesus quoted from the Old because it was a sacred 
 book, and while frankly dissenting from some of 
 the interpreters common to His day, He fully 
 conceded both its authority and integrity! Why 
 else should he have answered the devil in the very 
 language of the Old Testament, Matt. 4 .7 ? Why
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 147 
 
 should he have affirmed "Think not that I came 
 to destroy the law of the prophets ; I came not to 
 destroy, but to fulfill ; for verily I say unto you 
 until heaven and earth shall pass away one jot or 
 one title shall in nowise pass away from the law 
 until all things shall be accomplished." Matt. 5 : 
 17-18. Why should he have declared, "Whoso- 
 ever therefore shall break one of these least com- 
 mandments, and shall teach men so, shall be 
 called least in the kingdom of heaven; but who- 
 soever shall do and teach them he shall be called 
 great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5 119. But 
 why multiply such quotations? Every man who 
 is familiar with the Word of God knows that 
 Jesus confirmed the utter authority of the Old 
 Testament ! To deny that is to deny Him, or else 
 to declare that the New Testament is no trust- 
 worthy record of what He said. 
 
 Dr. Campbell concludes his discussion of the 
 authority of the scripture in perfect accord with 
 the custom of advanced theologians, lodging 
 authority in inner consciousness whatever that 
 may mean. It is doubtless pleasing to the flesh to 
 say, "we are writing a Bible with our own lives 
 today." It is almost eloquent to affirm, "every 
 noble life is a word of God to the world; every 
 brave, unselfish deed is a ray of eternal truth." 
 (p. 182). But when a man has finished that
 
 148 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 speech let it be understood that he has taken the 
 old Book away from us, and said "look at me! 
 God has given you no chart and compass with 
 which to make your way over the world, but He 
 has penned you a living epistle, and I am it," 
 all of which gives point to Mr. Campbell's 
 quotation from the witty Frenchman who 
 said, "In the beginning God created man in 
 His own image, and man has ever since been re- 
 turning the compliment by creating God in his !" 
 Mr. Campbell naively accepts the conclusion, say- 
 ing "what else can we do?" Our answer is, "It 
 is a poor little god New Theology has put up." 
 If Conservatives refuse to bow before it or him, 
 let not the critics be offended, since we decline 
 to worship ourselves. 
 
 The dispatch with which Mr. Campbell ac- 
 complishes this disposition of the Bible, walking 
 through the whole subject in a few minutes, giv- 
 ing attention to but a few texts, reminds one of 
 nothing so much as the report of that American's 
 visit to the British Museum. A writer says that, 
 with the Western hustle, "he leaped out, kicked 
 aside the pigeons that were feeding in the court, 
 and cried to the uniformed official at the door: 
 'Have you still got the Elgin Marbles ?' 'Yes, Sir. 
 Of course, Sir.' 'Good! And the Assyrian 
 winged-bulls?' 'They're still here, Sir.' 'What
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 149 
 
 about those 6,ooo-year old human remains on the 
 second floor they're not sold yet, are they ?' 'No, 
 indeed, sir.' Won't you step in and see them ?' 
 'No, thanks, I'll just take them as per catalogue. 
 You see, I've got Westminister, St. Paul's, the 
 House of Parliament and the South Kensington 
 Museum to do this morning, and I must get a 
 train for Oxford in time to run over the colleges 
 before starting for Stratford for the night. So 
 long, sir !' " 
 
 Dr. Campbell will perhaps pardon some of 
 us if we linger longer in this court of antiquity, 
 if we study more carefully its marble palaces, 
 and dwell upon the symbolism of its slain calf, 
 and listen with veneration to what its ancient 
 prophets have spoken; pardon us, perhaps, if 
 while we linger we think we hear God saying, 
 "these ancient writings contain My will," and 
 accept their promises as having a present day 
 application to our needs, and answers to our 
 holiest desires. 
 
 THE GOD OF ISRAEL. 
 
 With a commendable consistency Mr Camp- 
 bell rejects the God of Israel. 
 
 According to the /New Theology" The Jeho- 
 vah of the Old Testament was only a tribal deity. 
 In contending that the Semitic people be-
 
 150 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 lived in the community of life between the 
 worshipper and his God, he says, "In the Semitic 
 mind there was always a conviction that the 
 deity of the clan, or tribe, was the giver or sus- 
 tainer of its life. This did not apply to the minor 
 divinities, demons of woods and streams, but to 
 the tribal deities the Chemosh of Moab, the 
 Dagon of the Philistines, the Jehovah of Israel." 
 Surely here is "New Theology" with a ven- 
 geance. The claims elsewhere put forth by Mr. 
 Campbell, that the Hebrews regarded themselves 
 as having their particular god, is out of all ac- 
 cord with what we find in their literature. The 
 New Testament is not more clear in its teaching 
 of monotheism than is the old ; and, in fact, does 
 not so often declare upon the subject of one God, 
 and one only the Creator and Preserver of all 
 things as does the Old. Even the missionary 
 operations of the New Testament intended to 
 bring all men to worship this one God through 
 His Son, Jesus Christ are adumbrated by the 
 work of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Elijah, and 
 other prophets of the true faith that "God is 
 one, and beside Him there is none else." 
 
 John Watson, in the "Mind of the Master," 
 writes as truthfully as beautifully concerning the 
 Jewish conception of "the Holy One, who was 
 the Lord of Hosts," saying, "Jewish piety has
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 151 
 
 laid the world under a hopeless debt by imagin- 
 ing the austere holiness of God, and has doubled 
 the obligation by adding His tenderness. It was 
 an achievement to carve the white marble; a 
 greater to make it live and glow. The saints of 
 Israel touched their highest when they infused 
 the idea of the Divine spirituality with passion, 
 and brought it to pass that the Holy One of 
 Israel is the kindest deity that has ever entered 
 the heart of man. There was no human emotion 
 they did not assign to God; no relationship they 
 did not use as the illustration of His love; no 
 appeal of affection they did not place in His lips ; 
 no sorrow of which they did make Him partaker. 
 When a prophet's inner vision has been cleansed 
 by the last agony of pain, he dares to describe 
 the Eternal as a fond mother who holds Ephraim 
 by the hands, teaching him to go; who is out- 
 raged by his sin, and yet can not bear that Israel 
 should perish : as a Husband who has offered a 
 rejected love, and still pleads; who is stained by 
 a wife's unfaithfulness and pursues an adulter- 
 ess with entreaties. One can not lay his hand on 
 the body of prophetical Scripture without feeling 
 the beat of the Divine heart : one can detect in its 
 most distant members the warmth of the Divine 
 love." As Watson has truly taught, "faith could 
 take but one farther step than that which it ac-
 
 152 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 complished in the Old Testament : that was to see 
 the King on the Throne, 'the Shepherd of Israel,' 
 'the Rock of one's individual Salvation,' 'a very 
 present help in time of trouble,' to be a personal 
 fathet ;" and Jesus, who was also a Jew, taught 
 them that; taught them, as Watson says, ''That 
 God might be a King and a Judge, but He was 
 first of all, last of all, and through all, the Fath- 
 er." 
 
 Again, one is tempted to impatience when he 
 compares the God of the Old Testament and the 
 God of the New, with the god of Dr. Campbell's 
 creation. 
 
 The Definition of the Doctor's god is misty, 
 if not meaningless. He calls "it" or "him" "the 
 uncaused cause of all existence ; the uniatry prin- 
 ciple in all multiplicity." ("The New Theology," 
 p. 17). Again, he defines God as "the mysterious 
 Power that is finding expression in the universe, 
 and which is present in every atom of the won- 
 drous whole." (p. 18). 
 
 Again and again he defines Him as "the 
 Whole of things." This is certainly a combina- 
 tion of big expressions with small thinking. Some 
 years since Thomas Dixon and Mr. Ingersoll en- 
 gaged in a fiery debate, in the course of which 
 Mr. Ingersoll charged Christianity with lack of 
 clearness in its statement of faith, whereupon Mr.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 153 
 
 Dixon replied by reminding the Colonel that Mr. 
 Ingersoll's followers had started a society in New 
 York with a Sunday evening lecture, and its 
 leader, Mr. Frank, had at the first meeting, put 
 forth the following clear-cut declaration of faith : 
 "We 'believe in the superhuman purposive po- 
 tency of Nature. We look upon the universe as 
 the involution of the divine potentialities. The 
 all-potential is within all and working through 
 all. What this ultimate divine potentiality is we 
 do not claim to be fully able to comprehend." 
 Why Mr. Campbell went to the difficulty of an- 
 other definition, when so lucid a one was extant, 
 seems inexplicable, save on the supposition that 
 he had not heard of this one. To a man who, 
 like him, is tired of difficult terms and meaning- 
 less phrases, Mr. Frank's definition of faith 
 should be a delight. In the introduction to "The 
 New Theology," Dr. Campbell said, "I am usu- 
 ally able to say what I mean, and in the follow- 
 ing pages my object is to say what I mean in 
 such a way as everybody can understand." But 
 after all, has the idea of God been simplified 
 when you turn from the expression, "God is 
 love," to the statement, "God is the un-caused 
 cause of all existence?" Is one enlightened by 
 leaving the sacred page, where God is presented 
 as "Creator and upholder of all things," to listen
 
 154 TH E FINAUTY OF 
 
 to what Mr. Campbell has to say concerning "the 
 mysterious Power which is finding expression 
 in the universe?" 
 
 Again, is one rid of his difficulty when he re- 
 pudiates a God who created the heavens and the 
 earth, and is himself above them, and apart from 
 them, as a separate entity, by accepting a God 
 who is so identified with them that the dog is one 
 manifestation of Him, the cat another, and even 
 the poison-fanged serpent that crawls the earth, 
 or the hideous monster that disports himself in 
 the slime of the sea, a third? As between these 
 difficulties the majority of mankind will continue 
 to do as has been their wont, viz., adopt the old 
 notion that "God is Creator of the heavens, yet 
 above them," "the Maker of the earth, yet inde- 
 pendent of it;" the Father of our spirits, yet as 
 separate and entire, in himself, as we are from 
 our own children. Some one has written, "He 
 who is Christ's, surveying the wonders of Cre- 
 ation, can say, 'Glorious though these things be: 
 to me belongs that which is more glorious far.' 
 The streams are precious, but I have the Foun- 
 tain; the vesture is beautiful, but the Wearer is 
 mine ; the portrait in its every lineament is lovely, 
 but that great Original whose beauty it feebly de- 
 picts, is my own. 'God is my portion ; the Lord 
 is my inheritance.' To me belongs all actual and
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 155 
 
 all possible good, all created and uncreated 
 beauty, all that eye hath seen or imagination con- 
 ceived; and more than that, for 'Eye hath not 
 seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the 
 heart of man to conceive what God hath pre- 
 pared for them that love Him.' " For, over all 
 and above all, and beyond all, is God Himself. 
 
 JESUS OF NAZARETH. 
 
 Doctor Campbell defines Him as a man only. 
 To be sure, he resents this charge, and claims that 
 "Christ is 'the only man;' " yet his statements 
 bind him to the proposition that Christ is a man 
 only. He almost scoffs at the idea of His immac- 
 ulate conception; He insists that infinite knowl- 
 edge was not with Christ; His miracle-working 
 he ignores ; His physical resurrection he explains 
 on the ground that there is nothing physical, save 
 as thought takes that form. While ad- 
 mitting that divinity was in Jesus, he claims with 
 equal ardor that it is in every man. He says, 
 "God was not manifest in His flesh in any way 
 that would cut Him off from the rest of human 
 kind." Concerning His eternal existence, as a 
 co-equal with the Father, he names it "a gratu* 
 itous assumption, without a shred of evidence to 
 support it." 
 
 He admits that He was the incomparable man. 
 In common with those who first deny His deity
 
 156 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 that they may praise His humanity, he remarks, 
 "It is no use trying to place Jesus in a row along 
 with other religious masters; we have no cate- 
 gory for Him." "His influence for good is 
 greater than all the masters of men put together, 
 and still goes on increasing." He even admits 
 Jesus cannot be exceeded, saying, "We have seen 
 perfect manhood once, and that was the man- 
 hood of Jesus." Apparently he sees no incon- 
 sistency between these admissions and his theory 
 of evolution by which he declares there has been 
 a "gradual and unmistakable rise ; the law of ev 
 olution governing in human affairs just as it 
 does in every other cosmic process." But plain 
 people, and some fairly well-educated and con- 
 fessedly intelligent ones, will find it difficult to 
 follow Mr. Campbell in this manipulation of no- 
 tions. If evolution is true we ought to be on the 
 whole forever ascending in the scale of human 
 life, e'en though we suffer occasional short peri- 
 ods of retrogression. The man born two thous- 
 and years ago, of purely human parents, even of 
 plain and unlearned ones, bred in the inferior 
 schools of that time, pressed upon from 
 every side by the ignorant prejudices of his age, 
 should hardly prove the final product in the pro- 
 cess of human life, the goal beyond which man- 
 hood can never go, the climax of human charac-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 157 
 
 ter. Mr. Campbell maintains that the Old Testa- 
 ment never prophesied the coming of Jesus ; that 
 the promise of the Seed of woman to bruise the 
 head of the serpent had naught to do with Him ; 
 that Isaiah's Child, to be born and to become the 
 Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
 Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father, pointed 
 only to a mortal man who long since served his 
 generation and passed away; that even the 53rd 
 of Isaiah anticipates no suffering Messiah. 
 
 He explains Christ's death on natural 
 grounds it was not the fulfillment of a proph- 
 ecy, but a collusion of bad men against a good 
 one; it was not the substitution for sin, but the 
 meaningless sacrifice of an uncompromising life ; 
 it was not the Lamb slain from the foundation 
 of the world, but merely the vent of human ha- 
 tred against holiness. How all of this comports 
 with his theory that nothing exists outside of 
 God; that God is in everything, and everything 
 is only some form of divine expression, this new 
 theologian has not told us. It is hardly to be 
 expected that he ever will ! He declares that had 
 Jesus been gibbeted, or hung, or drowned, that 
 his church would have made the gibbet, the rope, 
 the water, the basis of its call, the insignia of its 
 conquest. When one is passing through all this 
 philosophizing about Christ he is carried along
 
 158 THE FINALITY of 
 
 by the writer's ardor, and does not so wrathfully 
 resent it; but when he lays aside the book, and 
 calmly contemplates the conclusion, he is com- 
 pelled to say, "not only unscriptural, but puerile," 
 "not only irreligious, but insane." There never 
 lived a man of sound mind, who could read the 
 Bible through, and come to any such conclusion 
 concerning Christ, except he had first been tu- 
 tored in the school of modern skepticism, dexter- 
 ously initiated into the order of the Anti-Super- 
 naturalists. To illustrate One day there floated 
 into the harbor of Nagasaki a Bible. An intelli- 
 gent Japanese man plucked it from the sands. 
 Upon being told what it was, he procured a Chi- 
 nese translation and began to read, and for seven 
 years he pored over its pages. In 1866 he went 
 to Verbeck that remarkable man to tell of his 
 experience, and this is what he said : "Sir, I can 
 not tell you my feelings, when for the first time 
 I read the account of the character and the work 
 of Jesus Christ. I had never seen or heard or im- 
 agined such a person. I was filled with admira- 
 tion, overwhelmed with emotion, and taken cap- 
 tive by the record of His nature and life." It Is 
 needless to tell you that that unprejudiced Jap- 
 anese believed that Jesus was the Christ proph- 
 esied in the Old Testament; born of the Virgin 
 but begotten of the Holy Ghost; that He lived
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 159 
 
 the life of spotless purity, and died the death oi 
 atoning sacrifice; that He rose literally from the 
 grave, and in person ascended to the right hand 
 of God, and that He there lives now to make in- 
 tercession for us; that He is the actual Head of 
 the church ; the present Conqueror, and the com- 
 ing King of Glory. This is the Christ of Conser- 
 vatives, the Christ of the Bible, and the Christ 
 of God. Who would exchange Him for Mr. 
 Campbell's remarkable man, however matchless 
 he may paint him, since it is written, "I and my 
 Father are one !" 
 
 Having disposed of the Sacred Scriptures; 
 the God of Israel, and the Man of Nazareth, 
 Doctor Campbell addresses himself to 
 
 SIN AND SALVATION. 
 
 Sin he defines as only a shadow. "Evil is a 
 negative, not a positive term; it denotes the ab- 
 sence rather than the presence of something; it 
 is the perceived privation of good, the shadow 
 where the light ought to be." "The devil," he 
 affirms, "is a vacuum." Some of his readers will 
 doubtless fear that an evil spirit has gotten into 
 the Doctor's head. 
 
 Now some of us had supposed that sin de- 
 noted more than the absence of something. 
 Drunkenness is doubtless the absence of sobriety, 
 but is it not also the presence of spirituous liquors
 
 160 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 in possession of a man? Lust is the absence of 
 true love, but is it not also the supremacy of evil 
 passions? Murder is the absence of the appre- 
 ciation of life, but is it not also the presence of 
 animated destruction? Again, he defines sin as 
 "the opposite of love ;" but is it not more ? Is it 
 not the active expression of lust? So thin and 
 shadowy is all this suggestion that Mr. Campbell 
 himself grows tired of it. In discussing the 
 Atonement he sanely suggests, "it is time we had 
 done with unreal talk about sin. Sin is the mur- 
 der-spirit in human experience. 'Whosoever ha- 
 teth his brother is a murderer. If a man say, I 
 love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar : for 
 he that loveth not his brother whom he hath 
 seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
 seen?' Strong language, but I suppose the man 
 who first used it must have known what he was 
 talking about." ("New Theology," p. 160). Did 
 not the man who defined "sin" as "the transgres- 
 sion of the law, know what he was talking about ? 
 Have the judges in the civilized parts of the world 
 had any occasion to doubt the accuracy of that 
 definition? Has the man who visits the red-light 
 district, or looks deeply enough into his own heart 
 to see its recesses, ever doubted the sanity of 
 Paul's statement of "the exceeding sinfulness of 
 sin?" Has not Doctor Campbell himself frankly
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. l6l 
 
 confessed his surrender to orthodoxy when he 
 says "pomposity is sin because it is egotism ; self- 
 complacency and contemptuousness are sin for the 
 same reason ; stupidity is sin, whether in a burglar 
 or a doctor of divinity ; a bitter, grasping, cruel, 
 unsympathetic spirit is sin, no matter who shows 
 it." Why does not the doctor go farther and say, 
 "the wages of sin is death ;" "the soul that sinneth 
 it shall die ?" All human experiences attest that 
 and all human observation witnesses to it. 
 
 A stranger thing than his contention that 
 "sin is a quest for God," has never found expres- 
 sion in literature. His contention that the man 
 who got drunk last night to gratify his lower 
 nature, was mistakenly, but "really seeking God," 
 is something new under the sun. His notion that 
 the roue, who went out to destroy innocents, 
 while in the very act of spreading death, "was 
 seeking God," is the shrewdest definition of sin 
 Satan has yet conceived, and the strangest defi- 
 nition of what God is, that any man professing to 
 know Him has yet voiced. This opinion is changed 
 in nothing by taking the whole context into ac- 
 count, except, that one is led to pity the author of 
 such sentences, when by the context it is made 
 evident that he is, after all, in no sympathy 
 with sin.
 
 1 62 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 It is little wonder that, with such definitions 
 of sin, one's idea of salvation should be conse- 
 quently queer. His presentation of the same is 
 simple enough, but not so easy. He tells men to 
 save themselves ; they are their own and only 
 saviours. Chas. Spurgeon says that he once vis- 
 ited Carisbrooke Castle where King Charles, of 
 unhappy memory, had been incarcerated. His 
 friends had planned Charles' escape ; a boat was 
 in waiting at the water's edge. Under the shadow 
 of darkness a ladder had been put up the side of 
 the castle, and it only remained for Charles to 
 scale the inner walls to the window, and all the 
 rest was easy! But alas! he had no power with 
 which to accomplish that. The Scriptures speak 
 of the soul as "dead in trespasses and in sin," 
 and Mr. Campbell says, "he who is guilty of sin, 
 is guilty of soul-murder." Query: How can the 
 dead man save himself? When Jesus called Laz- 
 arus with a loud voice, he came forth. The day 
 is not yet come when the dead rise without any 
 divine assistance ! That day Mr. Campbell's phil- 
 osophy of salvation will be practicable, and not 
 before ! 
 
 THE JUDGMENT TO COME. 
 
 He maintains there is none! "There is no 
 such thing as punishment; no far-off judgment 
 day; no great white throne, and no judge exter-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 163 
 
 nal to ourselves." (p. 210). This is a doctrine to 
 delight devils. It would take the fear out of their 
 hearts. When they reflect upon the God whom they 
 have spurned, they will cease from trembling. 
 But all of that will not keep them from the expe- 
 rience appointed unto the rebels against love. To 
 follow R. J. Campbell's speculations, when Christ 
 has given a revelation, is not to escape judgment, 
 but to increase it; not to fill up the lake of fire 
 and brimstone, but to fling ourselves in as addi- 
 tional fuel; it is not to enter the home which 
 God has prepared for them that love Him, but 
 to share the fate of them who hate Him and His 
 holy law. The most dangerous power with which 
 any minister or even mortal man was ever pos- 
 sessed, is the power of mis-direction. To point 
 people into the path that leads to the pit by per- 
 suading them that it ends in glory, is the acme 
 of opposition to God, and the climax of service 
 to the Adversary. For twenty centuries, yea and 
 for thirty, men whose faces have been lit up with 
 the light of a better world, whose feet have climb- 
 ed the path "that shineth more and more to the 
 perfect day," have walked according to the Word. 
 The fingers of true prophets and apostles have 
 pointed to the Celestial City, by way of the cross, 
 and to salvation by way of the bleeding Son of 
 God. I had rather lay down my life than hint to
 
 164 THE FINALITY OF . 
 
 any man that there is "any other way given un- 
 der heaven." When Sam Hadley died, one of 
 the speakers at his funeral rehearsed the story 
 told by William Arthur in the "Tongue of Fire" 
 concerning one of his old friends, Robert Sut- 
 cliffe. An aged man is represented as coming to 
 see him ; they talked together, and the visitor said, 
 "Did you know that so-and-so was dead? That 
 this one is gone, and the other, mentioning their 
 names," and Robert Sutcliffe answered, "So they 
 have all gone ! I suppose some of these men will 
 meet in heaven and say, 'where is Robert Sut- 
 cliffe ; he must have lost his way !' " He was still 
 for a moment, and opening his eyes with a smile, 
 he exclaimed, "I think not ; I shall go home soon, 
 and I can hear those aged friends of mine shout- 
 ing as I climb the streets of heaven 'Here 
 comes Robert Sutcliffe he has not missed the 
 way.' " 
 
 Beloved, if we accept the philosophies of men, 
 and fling away the revelation of our God, what 
 excuse will we be able to present for having 
 missed the way?
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 165 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SKEPTICISM IS SATAN BACK OF IT? 
 
 Henry Van Dyke has contributed an excel- 
 lent volume entitled "The Gospel for an Age of 
 Doubt." For the most part it is a noble defense 
 of "the faith once delivered." In the first chapter 
 of that volume he reminds his readers that "There 
 is a wide-spread unsettlement of soul in regard 
 to fundamental truths of religion, and also in re- 
 gard to the nature and existence of the so-called 
 spiritual faculties by which alone thes truths can 
 be perceived. In its popular manifestations, this 
 unsettlement takes the form of uncertainty rather 
 than of denial, of unbelief rather than of disbe- 
 lief, of general skepticism rather than of specific 
 infidelity. The questioning spirit is abroad, mov- 
 ing on the face of the waters, seeking rest and 
 finding none. The age stands in doubt." 
 
 The so-called Advanced Thinkers, occupying 
 some of our pulpits, seem to suppose that the 
 Gospel for such an Age should itself be "uncer- 
 tain." Many of them, refusing to favor home- 
 opathy in medicine, have, nevertheless, carried
 
 l66 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 its tocsin, "Similis curantur similibus" to the ut- 
 most extent in theology, and propose to save a 
 doubting world by dosing it with additional 
 doubt, and we are even told now that "Doubt is 
 no sin." And, whereas the Bible tells us we are 
 "saved by faith" and "sanctified by truth," these 
 self-styled "Thinkers" actually affirm "We are 
 saved by doubt" and "sanctified by skepticism." 
 In discussing the subject, "Doubt Is the 
 Devil Back of It ?" we want to take our position 
 beside Christ and listen to His definitions of 
 doubt, watch Him when He is dealing with 
 doubt, and hear what He has to say on the sub- 
 ject of redemption from doubt, for, with a 
 strange inconsistency, the majority of the Critics, 
 while denying the integrity of the Word, are 
 still trying to cling to the authority of Christ. 
 
 THE DEFINITION OF DOUBT. 
 
 If one is to accept even the Standard Diction- 
 ary: "Doubt is to hesitate to accept as true or 
 certain." "To be skeptical concerning !" "To hold 
 to be questionable or uncertain ! To distrust !" 
 
 Christ met men who maintained toward Him, 
 toward His work and toward His Word, doubt. 
 These men were at that time naturally divided 
 into three classes, and the same divisions obtain 
 to this minute, viz., the uninstructed, the non- 
 convinced and the indisposed.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 167 
 
 The uninstructed! Ignorance has always and 
 everywhere been the basis of much doubt. We 
 have a phrase that "Ignorance is the mother of 
 credulity." It is none the less the mother of in- 
 credulity. You tell the ignorant man about the 
 infinity of space and instantly he takes on a quiz- 
 zical smile. You tell the ignorant man about the 
 multitude of worlds and the relative littleness of 
 the earth, and his look as perfectly phrases "Why 
 don't yon quit lying?" as if he voiced it. He 
 may be the recipient of all the blessings inci- 
 dent to the Divine arrangement of the universe, 
 and yet see God in none of it, solely because he 
 is uninstructed. In the ninth chapter of John's 
 Gospel we have recorded one of the most re- 
 markable miracles known to the New Testa- 
 ment. A man, blind from his birth, is instantly 
 given his sight. They asked him concerning 
 his healer, "Where is he?" He answered, "I 
 do not know." They asked him, "Who is he?" 
 He answered, "I do not know." They asked 
 him, "How did he do it?" He answered, "I do 
 not know." They said, "The man who healed 
 you is a sinner." He answered, "Whether he is 
 a sinner I know not; one thing I know, that 
 whereas I was blind I now see." The man's 
 unbelief in the diety of Jesus Christ was a pure 
 result of his ignorance of Him. When Jesus
 
 1 68 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 returned to him and asked him, "Dost thou b*- 
 lieve on the Son of God?" he was compelled to 
 answer, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe 
 on Him?" We are not ready to say that this 
 man was responsible for his ignorance. A blind 
 man has not the opportunity of knowedge ac- 
 corded to others. Nor would we characterize 
 him as a "sinner" because of his doubt. But 
 when the time came that the Lord returned and 
 stood before his open vision, and said unto him, 
 "Thou hast both seen him, and it is He that 
 speaketh with thee" had he not then fallen down 
 to worship Him, his continued skepticism would 
 have been Satan's triumph. 
 
 An impression exists in some quarters to the 
 effect that men are being made skeptical in this 
 country by their increasing knowledge. On the 
 contrary they are being made skeptical by their 
 increasing ignorance! The children of this 
 generation may know five times as much Science 
 as did their fathers and mothers; they do not 
 know one-tenth as much Scripture! They talk 
 of "the assured results of scientific investigation" 
 because they have followed that far enough to 
 feel that it is true ; and they talk about the "er- 
 rancy of the Scriptures" because they have so 
 grossly neglected them that they do not know 
 their content. This neglect is not a necessity;
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 169 
 
 hence it is sin. How then, can the skepticism 
 born of it be less than sin? 
 
 The non-convinced! There are skeptical men 
 and women who are not chargeable with ignor- 
 ance of Scriptural things, but who are either from 
 Ireland or Missouri. The Irishman said, "I am 
 open to conviction, but I would like to see the 
 man that will convince me !" And the Missourian 
 said, "You'll have to show me !" 
 
 For the present we want to deal with the lat- 
 ter, and, without discussion, admit that he may 
 be a perfectly honest doubter. There are such 
 men and there are such women. They have 
 studied the Scripture some; they have studied 
 skeptical men more. The latter have filled them 
 with interrogation points. It is natural 
 that these men and women should be found in 
 the student body. When Henry Drummond said, 
 "Some of the finest young fellows with whom I 
 am acquainted, university men, are among the 
 most skeptical," he said the true thing. Why 
 should it not be so ? The average man or woman 
 who enters the schools has never even read the 
 Bible from cover to cover. He has dipped in 
 here and dipped in there, and his knowledge 
 is neither extensive, intensive, nor systematized, 
 The very methods employed in the school have 
 been ignored in his Biblical training. Great sec-
 
 I/O THE FINAUTY OF 
 
 tions of the Word, he has never seen. At the 
 average school there is no arrangement whatev- 
 er to make him familiar with it; and in some 
 schools the very men appointed to. instruct him 
 in the same talk learnedly of the "literary value 
 of the Bible" and reveal at the same time their 
 utter indifference to its divine character, and 
 its spiritual import. Think of a freshman in an 
 Indiana college, assigned the book of Job a r the 
 subject of his essay, putting in at the library 
 to ask for the same, and expressing his surprise 
 to discover that it was in the Bible. Think of 96 
 men in the Northwestern University a hot-bed 
 of skepticism questioned as to what the Pente- 
 teuch was, and 30 of them unable to answer; 
 asked where the book of Jude was, and 40 of 
 them unable to tell that it was in the New Tes- 
 tament ; asked to mention one of the judges, and 
 51 failing; asked to name three kings of Israel, 
 and 49 giving it up ; asked to name three prophets, 
 and 44 confessing their inability. Twenty of those 
 students could not write a single Beatitude. And 
 65 of the 96 could not quote one verse from the 
 epistle to the Romans. For Judges they named 
 Solomon, Nehemiah, Daniel and Lazarus. For 
 the prophets they named Matthew, Luke, Herod 
 and Ananias. It is such students who enter a 
 professor's chair later in life, and go Ingersoll
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 171 
 
 one better. Bob Ingersoll, blatant as he was 
 in his infidelity, never denied the immortality of 
 the soul. Shortly before his death he wrote a 
 little poem which runs after this manner : 
 
 "Is there, beyond the silent night 
 
 An endless day? 
 Is death a door that leads to light? 
 
 We may not say. 
 The tongueless secret hid in fate 
 
 We may not know: 
 We hope and wait." 
 
 It takes a professor in our own University- 
 Minnesota where doubt is glorified by some as 
 an evidence of intellectual superiority to be dead 
 certain that "there is no immortality of the soul," 
 and to laugh the Scripture-teaching out of court. 
 
 The Indisposed! No man can honestly study 
 the skepticism of the present day and escape the 
 conviction that a vast deal of it is a result neither 
 of ignorance of the Scripture, nor a lack of over- 
 whelming argument in favor of its inspiration, 
 but it is rather an indisposition. The ninth chap- 
 ter of John's Gospel deals with this class also. 
 When the Pharisees had been instructed by the 
 man to whom vision was given as to now he got
 
 172 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 his sight ; when he himself stood before them, an 
 undisputable evidence of the truth of his words, 
 they resorted to the exact phrase of modern skep- 
 tics, and discredited his standing, saying, "Thou 
 wast born in sin, and dost thou teach us? And 
 they cast him out." Jesus immediately appeared 
 upon the scene and said, "For judgment come I 
 into this world, that they that see not may see ; 
 and that they that see may become blind." The 
 Pharisees appreciated the point of His speech, 
 and said, "Are we also blind?" to which Jesus 
 made the remarkable answer, "If ye were blind 
 ye would have no sin ; but now ye say, We see ; 
 therefore your sin remaineth." In other words, 
 your skepticism is the pure product of a personal 
 conceit; and your infidelity is the fruit of the 
 indisposition to be convinced. 
 
 Joseph Parker never did a better job of rid- 
 dling skepticism than when he answered Mr. 
 Horton's series of "Tentative Suggestions" with 
 the volume, "None Like It A Plea for the Old 
 Sword." London's great preacher says, with 
 some degree of sarcasm, and yet with perfect oc- 
 casion, "Unbelief is not confined to technicalities. 
 It is really a mistake to suppose that Unbelief is 
 standing outside the ring-fence of Faith, sobbing 
 out its tender heart and begging Christian schol- 
 ars to explain how, in Samuel, David took from
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 173 
 
 the King of Zobah a thousand and seven hundred 
 horsemen; and how, in Chronicles he took from 
 the same king, apparently on the same occasion, 
 a thousand chariots and seven thousand horse- 
 men. Dear, sweet, guileless Unbelief is quite 
 prepared to enter the church and enjoy the sacra- 
 ments, if only the number of horses could be 
 made the same in one book as it is in the other. 
 No, no ; that is not the measure of Unbelief. That 
 is only where Unbelief begins! When he has 
 been satisfied respecting the horse and his rider, 
 the docile Infidel will say, 'And how are the 
 dead raised up, and with what body do they 
 come ?' Do not imagine that the delightful Infi- 
 del, that pet of all juveniles, is only waiting to 
 see the Hexateuch properly dated, and properly 
 signed, in order that he may adopt the creeds 
 and idolize 'the historic episcopate/ Infidelity, 
 where it is honest and courageous, sets its face 
 against the whole line of the supernatural, the re- 
 vealed and the inspired, and not merely against 
 certain literal and obvious discrepancies. By all 
 means let discrepancies be reconciled or removed 
 scholarship is quite equal to this useful work 
 but do not suppose that the successful readjust- 
 ment of chronologies, dates, and authorships will 
 lead the Infidel to accept the Bible as 'the inspired 
 record of the Word of God.' I question whether it
 
 174 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 would even help him to do so. Possibly it would 
 bring into more vivid and revolting significance 
 the fact that he 'did not like to retain God in his 
 knowledge'" (Rom. 1:28). 
 
 Men sometimes talk as if skepticism .vere on- 
 ly a difference of thinking and that one man is 
 as much entitled to his opinion as the other But 
 is it not also a difference of living? We hold to 
 utter freedom of thought. It is the privilege of 
 any man in the world to think as he pleases. But 
 it is not the special privilege of any soul on earth 
 to escape the consequences of his thinking. If 
 he think crookedly, he will produce a harvest of 
 crime. If he think falsely and one believes him 
 he will behave after the same manner. If he 
 think God out of his universe, the devil will 
 reijiii in him without a rival. You tell us, then, 
 it is no sin to doubt the great verities that pro- 
 vide the only foundation for righteousness ? Tn 
 Fiance only a little more than a hundred years 
 ago they were spending $450,000,000 a year in 
 printing *and distributing skeptical literature. 
 What was the result? The Bible was discredit- 
 ed, God was denied, the Sabbath was abolished, 
 the church was paralized in its every part, and, 
 as a magazine puts its, "Hell broke loose ; one 
 half the children born in Paris were bastards. 
 1,022,351 persons were beheaded, shot, drowned,
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 175 
 
 outraged, and done to death between September, 
 1792, and December, 1795. Even today about 
 one-third of the births in Paris are illegitimate. 
 10,000 new born are fished out of the city sewers 
 in a single year. The Republic lives in the throes 
 of its former infidelity." Its population is de- 
 creasing. Its suicides . multiply. "Who says 
 skepticism is not a sin?" "By their fruits ye 
 shall know them." That phrase contains the 
 most relentless logic that was ever thrown into 
 human speech. 
 
 It is very beautiful to get around you a com- 
 pany of young men and women who have very 
 little knowledge of what you are talking about, 
 and spin your theories, and set yourself up as an 
 advanced thinker! But who is going to reap 
 the harvest? Who is going to hold his position 
 when the whirlwind comes? If we were asked 
 what was the basal factor in the world's skepti- 
 cism, we should answer in one word "sin!" 
 If we were asked who was the chief author of the 
 world's infidelity, we should answer in one word 
 "Satan!" 
 
 DEALING WITH DOUBT. 
 
 Come now to a study of Christ's dealing with 
 doubt. Let us see how He behaved toward it. 
 
 When genuine, Christ graciously condoned it. 
 Peter once doubted his Lord's ability, and the sea
 
 176 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 opened beneath his feet and he began to sink. 
 Jesus did not say, "Let him go; he is only a 
 skeptic anyhow." But the moment Peter cried for 
 help, He stretched forth His hand and lifted him 
 up. Thomas doubted the resurrection of Christ 
 and declared he would never believe it until it 
 was demonstrated to his physical senses. Thomas 
 was quite a "scientist," *re would have you under- 
 stand ! And Jesus regarded that fact, but finding 
 him a sincere scientist, he made the revelation. A 
 leper doubted the disposition of Christ and ap- 
 proached him, saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou 
 canst make me clean." Jesus did not condemn 
 him, but said, "I will, be thou clean," because 
 down in the heart of the doubter was a sincere de- 
 sire and a struggling hope. The epileptic's fath- 
 er doubted the power of Christ. He said, "Lord, 
 if thou canst do anything, have mercy upon us 
 and help us." Jesus did not condemn him; he 
 condoned the offense and instructed him. "If thou 
 canst believe, all things are possible to him that 
 believeth," and He healed his child. Campbell 
 Morgan, referring to these incidents, said, "Do 
 you see that these men were not certain, but in 
 their skepticism they ventured on Christ." One 
 came to him on a crutch because he could not 
 walk straight. And the crutch was a little "if." 
 "Lord, if thou wilt." And the other had to get
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 177 
 
 a little crutch a. crutch for the other side. He 
 said, "If thou canst, do something for my boy." 
 And how did the Master deal with him? Did 
 He say, "No, you are an unbeliever?" Never I 
 If a man got to Him, Christ did not care how he 
 came. It is better to know, and to say, "Lord., 
 thou canst! I believe!" But if you cannot 
 come that way, come with your "if." Only, come t 
 The genuine skeptic will be received. His doubts 
 will be dispelled ! His difficulties will be abolish- 
 ed ! His sore will be healed ! 
 
 When superficial, Christ skillfutly uncovered 
 it. We shall never forget a time when Dr. James 
 Peter Boyce, one of the most splendid and per- 
 fect gentlemen and one of the most superb schol- 
 ars America ever produced, sat in his chair teach- 
 ing "Systematic Theology." It was one of those 
 days when he let the class run wild a bit, and the 
 boys poured in a volley of questions, and did the 
 cute student trick of making the old man recite, 
 and they thus escape recitation. He answered 
 them as they came, presenting his Scripture in 
 defense of his positions, easily parrying their 
 thrusts. Finally a Mexican from the rear of the 
 room, his face all aglow, shouted out, "Ah, Doc- 
 tor, they can't catch you!" 
 
 But the one crowd who found themselves face 
 to face with a man who could not be caught with
 
 17 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 their captious questions was the crowd that came 
 up against the Christ; it is interesting to not* 
 the way He answered one such company. And 
 mark you, they were Sadducees they were the 
 advanced thinkers of His day. They were "the 
 Liberal" company of Israel. They weiv the 
 "Scientists" who denied the possibility of a mira- 
 cle, and stood for the uniformity of natural law 
 and for evolution. So they said, making their at- 
 tack upon Moses, who to this moment is the sub- 
 ject of their attacks, "Moses said, If a man die, 
 having no children, his brother shall marry his 
 \vife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now 
 there were with us seven brethren: and the first> 
 when he had married a wife, deceased, and, hav- 
 ing no issue, left his wife unto his brother: like- 
 wise the second also, and the third, unto the sev- 
 enth. And last of all the woman died also. There- 
 fore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be 
 of the seven, for they all had her?" Now mark 
 the answer, "Jesus answered and said unto them . 
 Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the 
 power of God." And then to prove that they had 
 no knowledge of the Scriptures, He went on and 
 rehearsed in their hearing what the Scriptures 
 taught concerning the resurrection. 
 
 If the skeptics of this country 
 should set themselves to a serious study of the
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 179 
 
 Word of God, and be willing to come into a per- 
 sonal experience of the power of God, they would 
 not only be silenced, as were these Sadducees, but 
 they could even be saved, for we are saved and 
 set free by the knowledge of the truth. A little 
 while ago, in the city of Chicago, a widely known 
 skeptic went into the Ministers' meeting on a 
 Monday morning when Dr. James Orr, of Scot- 
 land, that great scientist and stalwart defender 
 of the faith, was to speak, and before he had fin- 
 ished with that infidel's ideas and plagiaristic cus- 
 toms, the latter slunk from the room, perhaps as 
 much ashamed of the weakness of his late vol- 
 ume as he was over the fact which Orr brought 
 out that he had filched pages from a German 
 author, using them as his own, without so much 
 as a hint that they were the product of another 
 mind. 
 
 When insincere, Christ severely excoriated it. 
 He charged Saduccees and Pharisees with insin- 
 cerity in their skepticism toward Him. And then 
 He called them "hypocrites," "whitened sepul- 
 chers," "viperous brood." Evidently the rejection 
 of the deity of Jesus was no light matter in the 
 mind of our Master. Evidently the rejection of the 
 Word of God was, in His judgment, nothing 
 short of wickedness. He affirmed that the unbe- 
 lieving were under condemnation. He declared,
 
 180 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 that he that rejected Him rejected God, and that 
 he that refused to hear His word would fall before 
 the inexorable judgment of the same. Think you 
 that Jesus did this because of personal pique? 
 Never ! He did it because he knew the fruits of 
 infidelity. He knew that it was so, as Charles 
 Kingsley makes Raphael Aben-Ezra, to say to 
 Hypatia the brilliant, superficial skeptic, who 
 was willing to fling away all revelation that she 
 might follow out her fine-spun philosophies 
 "Hypatia, I am older than you wiser than you, 
 if wisdom be the fruit of the tree of knowledge. 
 You know but one side of the medal, (skepticism) 
 Hypatia, and the fairer; I have seen its reverse 
 form of human thought, of human action, of hu- 
 man sin and folly, I have been wandering for 
 years, and found no rest as little in wisdom as 
 in folly, in spiritual dreams as in sensual brutali- 
 ty. I could not rest in your Platonism I will 
 tell you why hereafter. I went on to Stoicism, 
 Epicurism, Cynicism, Skepticism, and in that 
 lowest depth I found a lower depth, when I be- 
 came skeptical of skepticism itself." 
 
 "There is a lower depth still," thought Hypa- 
 tia to herself, as she recollected last night's 
 magic; but she did not speak. What was the 
 magic of last night? Sin! The very thing to 
 which Raphael had himself been led, until he
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. l8l 
 
 says, "I was on a level with my dog the poor, 
 dumb brute yea, lower, for she obeyed the laws 
 God had appointed for her control, while I broke 
 them, everyone." When did doubt ever bring men 
 to do less? When did skepticism ever make a 
 saint ? 
 
 Dr. Reuben A. Torrey, at the close of a ser- 
 mon on "Unbelief" said, "I want to ask every man 
 who has been saved from intemperance, or other 
 sin, by faith in Christ and the Bible, to stand up." 
 Something like a thousand men rose to their feet. 
 Then, continuing, he said, "Now I want to be 
 fair! I want any unbeliever who has been saved 
 from his intemperance or other sin, by his infi- 
 delity, to stand." The preacher looked, not ex- 
 pecting any one to stand. But far back under the 
 gallery, a man was struggling to his feet. Dr. 
 Torrey said, "Stand up and tell it out, my man; 
 how did your unbelief save you?" But the man 
 beside him said, "He can't tell it ; he's drunk !" 
 
 REDEMPTION FROM DOUBT. 
 
 Did Christ have an antidote for doubt? "If 
 any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of 
 the teaching, whether it be of God." 
 
 "If any man willeth !" Willingness ought to 
 be a product of thought. No man will ever be 
 redeemed from doubt unless he thinks. And it 
 cannot be flippant thinking; it cannot be super-
 
 1 82 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 ficial philosophising. It ought to be deep an- 1 
 profound and continued thought. David said, 
 "I though* on my ways, and turned my feet unto 
 thy testimonies; I made haste and delayed not 
 to keep thy commandments." The skeptics are 
 very fond of the phrase, "The thinking man be- 
 lieves" so and so. But if experience is to be our 
 guide, the man who truly thinks, and thinks 
 truly, at one and the same time, can not remain 
 skeptical. 
 
 Redemption from doubt comes by way of an 
 inquiring mind. Nicodemus did not know 
 whether Jesus was the Christ. He made up his 
 mind to find out. He went into His presence. 
 He put to Him his troublesome questions. He 
 came away from Him convinced. The Rich 
 Young Ruler did not know the way of life. He 
 ran after the Lord, and falling at His feet, madt 
 inquiry. Even though he did not do what Jesus 
 said, he went from His presence convinced. 
 How can a man think, and yet at the same time 
 believe that this universe is not the product of an 
 Infinite Person, possessed of an Infinite mind? 
 How men can prate their infidelity, when apart 
 from faith we can do nothing, it is difficut to tin - 
 dersrand.
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 1 83 
 
 "Whoever plants a seed beneath the sod 
 And waits to see it push away the clod, 
 He trusts in God. 
 
 Whoever sees 'neath winter's wealth of snow 
 The silent harvest of the future grow, 
 God's power doth know. 
 
 Whoever says when clouds are in the sky 
 'Be patient, heart, Light cometh by and by,' 
 Trusts the Most High. 
 
 Whoever lies down on his couch to sleep 
 And locks his sense in slumber deep, 
 Knows God will keep. 
 
 Whoever says 'tomorrow' the unknown, 
 The future, trusts the Power alone 
 He dares disown. 
 
 Whoever sees in death the eyelids close, 
 And yet can live when life has only woes, 
 God's comfort knows." 
 
 Redemption from doubt is accomplished by a 
 responsive heart. A man's intellectual difficul- 
 ties may be solved and yet he may not be saved. 
 It was so with the Scribes, and, beyond doubt,
 
 184 THE tflNAUTY Of 
 
 with Felix, also. The questions were answered, 
 but the heart was still held by sin. There is a 
 point at which questions should cease, and wor- 
 ship should commence. As some one has said, 
 "When God called to Moses to stop; to come 
 no nearer the burning bush, it was an indication 
 that inquiry was to cease, and worship was to 
 begin." That is the point at which our thinking 
 has arrived. We have glorified "investigation" 
 and despised "devotion." We have proposed to 
 submit everything to the microscope and the 
 scalpel, and if we cannot find the soul, to deny 
 it ; and if with natural vision we can not see God, 
 to decry Him. For Moses to have walked up to 
 the bush would have been to find no fire; 
 or else to have died there by disregarding, at 
 one and the same time his sinful condition, and 
 God's uncompromising holiness. "With the 
 heart, man believeth unto righteousness." When 
 the intellect is convinced, let the knees bend; let 
 the face go to the dust, and God will speak and 
 in the sound of His voice the soul will lose for- 
 ever its skepticism. 
 
 The redemption from doubt is best assured 
 by an obedient spirit. Saul was not a doubter ; he 
 was a disbeliever! He disregarded the claims of 
 Christ. He denied the authority of His Word. 
 He derided the thought of His deity. But when
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 185 
 
 overwhelmed and convinced, he cried, "Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me to do?" And from that 
 point, until the day when they led him out to his 
 martyrdom, he never had a doubt. When the 
 spirit of obedience came in, the spirit of skepti- 
 cism found no room. "If any man is willing to 
 do His will he shall knoiv." The way before him 
 may not be fully lighted, but at its darkest 
 passage he will feel the guiding Hand. 
 
 A young woman says, "I went through the 
 Cave of the Winds at Niagara. The path was 
 narrow, the sound of the falling water drowned 
 every other sound. The spray blinded me and I 
 could not see where I was going. I seemed to be 
 deaf, and blind. But I clung to a strong, steady 
 hand, and did not really feel afraid. The guide 
 held me and drew me forward, and I had noth- 
 ing to do but follow, until by and by we were in 
 the clear shining again." 
 
 We see the way! Shall we not walk in it 
 inspired by His willingness and power to bring 
 us safely home?
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN SCRIPTURE 
 STUDY. 
 
 "Give diligence to present thyself approved 
 unto God, a workman that needeth not to be 
 ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. But 
 shun profane babblings: for they will proceed 
 further in ungodliness, and their word will eat 
 as doth a gangrene : of whom is Hymenaeus and 
 Philetus; men who concerning the truth have 
 erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, 
 and overthrown the faith of some. Howbeit the 
 firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, 
 the Lord knoweth them that are his: and, Let 
 every one that nameth the name of the Lord 
 depart from unrighteousness." (2 Tim. 2:15-19.; 
 
 The most ardent opponent of the so-called 
 "New Theology" is not a conservative "Modern" 
 but a progressive "Ancient." In Germany, Bet- 
 tex is looked upon by Liberals as a most ardent 
 opponent of their opinions; in France the schol- 
 arly Gaussen was feared, and with good reason, 
 by the professed Progressives ; in Scotland today- 
 James Orr stands like a granite shore-line to
 
 l88 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 resist the rising tide of skepticism; in England 
 such men as Spurgeon, Parker, Meyer and Mor- 
 gan have made the endeavors of so-called pro- 
 gressive pulpits appear almost pitiful; while in 
 America, the names of the truly noble who have 
 not become enamored of Athenian theology, 
 but who have answered every Critic so eloquently 
 as to exasperate him, are too numerous to men- 
 tion. 
 
 And yet, towering above any one of them, 
 and all of them, as an opponent of so-called "New 
 Theology," is a man who was put to death two 
 thousand years ago for the faith that was in him, 
 but who "though dead, yet speaketh," and from 
 whose pen we take our text even Paul. 
 It is little wonder that the Athenian theologians 
 have asserted that he was not inspired and have 
 sought to discredit him, since his writing antici- 
 pated them with an eloquence that is command- 
 ing, and a logic that is relentless. If one deny 
 the inspiration of the Apostle he is yet com- 
 pelled to attend upon what he says. So colossal 
 a figure cannot be counted out when subjects to 
 which he addressed himself are under discussion ; 
 and, certainly he wrote concerning the scientific 
 spirit in Scripture study. 
 
 What are the suggestions of this text? Four 
 at least, with their subdivisions: The Scientific
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 189 
 
 Spirit; The Inspired Scriptures; The Skeptical 
 Professor, and The Philosophy of the Stead- 
 fast. 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT. 
 
 Paul was no poor student! Never once did 
 he set his approval upon ignorance, lack of study 
 or research. The language of this text is a rev- 
 elation of the Apostle's character and customs. 
 "Give diligence to present thyself approved unto 
 God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, 
 handling aright the word of truth." That is the 
 scientific spirit. 
 
 The scientific spirit manifests itself in diligent 
 research.. "The Biblical World" for August, 
 1908, says, "The time has come when the scien- 
 tific spirit must be adopted in Bible study." Who 
 objects? Who ever did object; and when? The 
 point of controversy between Progressives and 
 Conservatives is not a question as between the 
 scientific and the unscientific spirit. Every in- 
 telligent Conservative believes in the research 
 that is scientific. And, well equipped Conserva- 
 tives are quite as capable of determining what is 
 scientific as are Liberals. It is a singular circum- 
 stance when a man like R. J. Campbell, 
 better known because he is the successor to 
 the conservative Joseph Parker than for all other 
 reasons combined, prates about the "conclusions
 
 190 THE FINALITY Of 
 
 of science" and talks as if he was an expert in the 
 whole realm, when the truth is that his educa- 
 tional advantages were comparatively slight, and 
 his theological studies were received from no 
 school whatever. Other men, like Mr. Spurgeon 
 and Campbell Morgan, not having enjoyed a 
 theological seminary course, were Spirit-taught, 
 which is even better; but Mr. Campbell seems to 
 have been self-taught. The scientists never had 
 a chance at him in the student days; and as for 
 the Spirit, he repudiates His instruction. And 
 yet, being a Liberal, there is a wide-spread opin- 
 ion that he is learned. Alas for the conceit that 
 "skepticism" and "smartness" are synonymous! 
 It was of that very thing the Apostle wrote when 
 he said concerning some, "who, knowing God, 
 glorified him not as God, but became vain 
 in their reasoning, and professing themselves to 
 be wise, they became fools; and exchanged the 
 truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served 
 the creature rather than the' Creator." (Rom. I : 
 21, 22, 25). 
 
 The great scientists of the past have, with 
 wonderful unanimity, believed the Bible, and 
 neither Faraday, Kepler, nor Newton ever felt 
 that they had to surrender "the scientific spirit" 
 in order to accept Scripture conclusions, while 
 Lord Kelvin, who, from the early age of twenty-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 191 
 
 two, at which time he became Professor of Nat- 
 ural Philosophy in Glasgow University, down to 
 the ripened period of 83 or 61 years brought 
 his scientific mind to bear upon the inspired Book 
 and never found occasion to cast any part of it 
 away, or call into question its utter authority. 
 Not many in America but know something of the 
 scientific accomplishments and professional skill 
 of Dr. Howard A. Kelley, of Baltimore. He has 
 recently contributed an article to Appleton's 
 Magazine entitled "Out of Uncertainty and Doubt 
 into Faith," the purpose of which was to show 
 that when he brought his well-trained mind and 
 an open heart to the study of the Bible, he was 
 not only convinced that it was inspired, but com- 
 pelled to accept every one of its great doctrines, 
 approve its plan of salvation, and yield his intel- 
 lect and will to the authority of its commands. 
 He says, "I found that the Bible claimed to be the 
 authoritative Word of God, and by taking it as 
 my text-book of religion, testing it by submitting 
 to its conditions, I came to believe the Book the 
 inspired Word of God ; inspired in a sense utterly 
 different from that of any merely human book." 
 "I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, 
 without human father, conceived by the Holy 
 Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; that all men, 
 without exception, are by nature sinners, alien-
 
 192 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 ated from God, and when thus utterly lost in sin, 
 the Son of God himself came down to earth, and 
 by shedding his blood upon the cross, paid the 
 infinite penalty of the guilt of the whole world. 
 I believe he who thus receives Jesus Christ as 
 his Saviour, is born again spiritually as definitely 
 as in his first birth, and, so born spiritually, has 
 new privileges, appetites and affections; that he 
 is one body with Christ the Head and will live 
 with him forever. I believe no man can be saved 
 by what is known as a 'moral life,' such works 
 being but the necessary fruits and evidence of the 
 faith within." And Kelley concludes, "If faith so 
 reveals God to me, I go without question wherev- 
 er He may lead me. I can put His assertions and 
 commands above every seeming probability in 
 life, dismissing cherished convictions and look- 
 ing upon the wisdom and ratiocinations of men 
 as folly if opposed to Him. I place no limits to 
 faith when once vested in God, the sum of all 
 wisdom and knowledge, and can trust Him 
 though I should have to stand alone before the 
 world declaring Him to be true." 
 
 Who are these that are boasting their scien- 
 tific ability, and insinuating that the Scriptures 
 are to go down before it ? Had they lighted their 
 little candles from Kelvin's torch they might live 
 their lives in greater light, and certainly would
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 193 
 
 have less to say concerning "the conflict of sci- 
 ence and the Scriptures." Had they given one- 
 half as much time to the earnest study of science 
 as has Howard A. Kelley, and like him, turned 
 from the study of God's revelation in the physi- 
 cal world to a careful and prayerful perusal of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, they might have come to 
 the same conclusions. Let us have a scientific 
 spirit; but let it be the spirit of science and not 
 the spirit of shallowness. 
 
 The scientific spirit will concern itself with 
 the Divine approval. As some has put it, "So far 
 as a man is at all scientific he is thinking God's 
 thoughts after Him." And the true Christian 
 will be vastly concerned to so think as to meet 
 the Divine approval. We are told that Da Vinci's 
 first great endeavor to produce a work of art re- 
 sulted solely from the desire to please his studio 
 master, and that when the great teacher came and 
 looked upon it, it was so surpassingly beautiful 
 that he looked upon the lad and said, "I shall 
 never paint again." The truth is that our God 
 has deliberately decided to paint no more pictures 
 of revelation, and to write no more His revealed 
 will ; but he lays it upon us to incarnate His con- 
 ceptions and translate His revelations, that the 
 world shall see His work in us. A true student,
 
 194 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 therefore, can but desire to secure the Divine ap- 
 proval upon his research. 
 
 The scientific spirit will be careful in the use 
 of the Divine Word. The discoveries of today 
 always demand the preservation and propagation 
 of yesterday's knowledge. The man who pro- 
 poses, therefore, to begin the study of the Bible 
 by despising the conclusions of his fathers, may 
 be regarded as an iconoclast, but can hardly be 
 considered a scientist. This is not the morning of 
 scientific research! The day of scientific dis- 
 covery is well advanced! We are not emerging 
 out of darkness that makes every vision new, and 
 every treatise original. We have to give consid- 
 eration to what our fathers thought, and attend 
 upon what our teachers have said. The Bible has 
 been too long in use for people to talk as if none 
 of its tenets were true. The youth of this coun- 
 try, listening to the talk of present-day Critics, 
 have been brought to think that the Koran, the 
 Eddas of the Scandinavians, the Tribitaka of the 
 Buddhist, the Five Kings of China, the three 
 Vedas of the Hindoos and the Zend Avesta, are 
 all as ancient as the Scriptures, if not more so. 
 Well-instructed men know this is false. The 
 Scandinavian Eddas are 1400 years younger than 
 the latest Scripture; the Koran 700; the Buddist 
 revelation, while it antedates Christ, could easily
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 195 
 
 have borrowed its best parts from the Sacred 
 Books of the Old Testament. Practically every 
 one of them was written before it came into ex- 
 istence ; while much of that Old Testament ante- 
 dates the so-called revelations of China, of India, 
 and of Persia. Its very age, therefore, demands 
 a reverential use ; while its accomplishments com- 
 mand and compel its sacred study. 
 
 He who professes to study light, scientifically, 
 will be compelled to take the sun into account; 
 and the man who proposes to introduce the sci- 
 entific spirit into the study of religion will be 
 equally compelled to consider the moral luminary 
 of the universe, the Book of books, known 
 throughout the world as "The Bible." By all 
 means let us be scientific! 
 
 THE INSPIRED SCRIPTURES. 
 
 What does the Apostle mean by his phrase, 
 "The Word of Truth?" Jesus had already spoken 
 to this theme, praying to His Father to sanctify 
 his disciples "through the truth," and adding 
 "Thy word is truth." Paul, writing to the Ephe- 
 sians of "the hope we have in Christ in whom ye 
 believe" says, "having heard the word of truth 
 the gospel of your salvation." Unquestionably 
 James was speaking of that part of the Bible 
 with which he was familiar, when he declared
 
 196 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 that God "of his own will brought us forth by 
 the word of truth." The very language em- 
 ployed involves the doctrine of inspiration, the 
 necessity of illumination and the truth of Spirit- 
 instruction. 
 
 Inspiration alone can insure the truth. The 
 reason the writings of the most scientific men the 
 world has known go out of date and pass, away, 
 is because their successors discover error in their 
 conclusions. The most scientific spirit does not 
 insure unchangeable conclusions; inspiration 
 alone can do that. If you are going to have a 
 Gospel that will forever remain "profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for in- 
 struction in righteousness," it must be inspired. 
 No fault must be found in it. The reason Har- 
 vey's discovery of the circulatory system will re- 
 main forever a fact, is not because Harvey said 
 it, but because when Moses wrote "The life is in 
 the blood" he voiced what was intrinsically true. 
 The reason why the law of gravity will have to 
 be regarded by all great scientists, is not because 
 Newton affirmed it to be a fact. Newton some- 
 times made mistakes, but because God himself 
 bethought and spoke it, as Job long since wrote, 
 "He hangeth the world on nothing." The 
 reason why our modern scientists are eschewing 
 certain animals as unfit to eat and favoring oth-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 197 
 
 ers, is not because of physicians only (they are 
 too often in error), but because when Moses 
 wrote the Book of Leviticus he was so perfectly 
 inspired as to make no mistake as to what was 
 under the ban and what in favor from the stand- 
 point of human health. Science reaches accuracy 
 only after a thousand experiments, and climbs 
 into the light only after a long journey out of 
 enveloping darkness ; but inspiration speaks once 
 and it "standeth fast." It turns its face to the 
 rising sun and wears light as a garment ! Of no 
 other book written in the world can it be said, as 
 Christ has already affirmed concerning the Bible, 
 "Thy word is truth." 
 
 And yet, illumination is essential to the under- 
 standing of the Scriptures. "The natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither 
 indeed can he know them, because they are spirit- 
 ually discerned. Beecher was right when he said, 
 "The Bible will not give up its secrets to those 
 who approach it with their bellowing passions and 
 perverted intentions." 
 
 Huxley was supposed to be a great scientist, 
 but confessed that that part of his nature which 
 might have enjoyed painting or music was atro- 
 phied. Does any man mean to suggest that the 
 carnal man may not be so thoroughly lacking in 
 all religious intuitions as to make the meaning of
 
 198 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 revelation to him impossible? When Abraham 
 Lincoln, the great President, was visiting in the 
 Soldiers Home, Joshua F. Speed, his intimate 
 friend, came to the Home to spend the night with 
 him. Rising just after sunrise he ran up to the 
 President's room. He found him reading a book. 
 Looking over his shoulder he found it was the 
 Bible. Jocularly, Mr. Speed said, "I am glad to 
 see you so profitably employed!" "Yes," an- 
 swered the great Lincoln; "I am profitably em- 
 ployed !" Well," said Speed, "I wonder if you have 
 recovered from that skepticism that once charac- 
 terized you. I confess frankly that I have not." 
 Lincoln looked into his face for a moment, and 
 then rising, put his hand on his shoulder and ten- 
 derly said, "You are wrong, Speed ! Take all of 
 this Book upon reason that you can and the rest 
 on faith, and you will, I am sure, live, and die a 
 better and a happier man." But whether one re- 
 ceives it on reason or on faith, if he is to under- 
 stand it, the Spirit must instruct him and he must 
 bring to that holy instruction a teachable spirit. 
 Of the office of the Holy Ghost, Christ himself 
 said, "When he is come he will guide you into 
 all truth." He cannot guide a man who rejects 
 Him ; nor yet the man who refuses Jesus as 
 Teacher, for of Him again it is said, "He shall
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 199 
 
 not speak of himself ; he shall take of the things 
 of Christ and show them unto you." 
 
 THE SKEPTICAL PROFESSOR. 
 
 Here is Paul's description of him: "Shun 
 profane babblings : for they will proceed further 
 in ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth 
 a gangrene : of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus ; 
 men who concerning the truth have erred, say- 
 ing that the resurrection is past already, and over- 
 thrown the faith of some." What about the 
 skeptical Professor? Three things! 
 
 First, he has erred concerning the truth. Paul 
 says, in illustration of his charge he has denied 
 "the resurrection." That is definite and marvel- 
 ously up to date. George Burman Foster denies 
 the resurrection ; R. J. Campbell denies the resur- 
 rection. Prof. Willets, in a recent article, does 
 not deny the resurrection, but does doubt the im- 
 maculate conception. John is as much inspired 
 as Paul, and John says, "Who is a liar but he that 
 denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" (i Jno. 2:22). 
 Concerning the immaculate conception it is writ- 
 ten "That which is conceived in her is of the 
 Holy Spirit." To deny that is to face another 
 indictment from the pen of the Apostle John, 
 "He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; 
 because he hath not believed in the witness that
 
 20O THE FINAUTY OF 
 
 God hath borne concerning his Son." (i Jno. 
 5:10). In talking some time since with a Con- 
 servative minister concerning certain utterances 
 by Prof. Willetts, of which excerpts had ap- 
 peared in the papers, he said, "I am glad to see 
 that he does not deny the resurrection of Jesus." 
 But is not the denial of the immaculate concep- 
 tion equally infidel with the denial of the 
 resurrection ? and either of them puts a man out- 
 side the pale of evangelical fellowship. 
 
 Again, the skeptical Professor has overthrown 
 the faith of his fellows. The word is, "Men who 
 concerning the truth have erred, saying that the 
 resurrection is past already, and overthrown the 
 faith of some." How often that thing has oc- 
 curred, who can tell ? Not a few times in recent 
 years have we had young men confess to us that 
 in the course of their studies they had lost their 
 faith in Christ as God, and the Bible as the Word 
 of God. One of these, said, "I would give the 
 world to believe in the Bible as you seem to do." 
 It is a terrific arraignment Jesus Christ brings 
 against those who destroy the faith of their fel 
 lows, "Whoso shall cause one of these little ones 
 that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for 
 him that a great millstone should be hanged about 
 his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth 
 of the sea. Woe unto the world because of oc-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 2OI 
 
 casions of stumbling! for it must needs be that 
 the occasions come, but woe to that man thro 
 whom the occasion cometh." Walter Scott writes 
 regarding the Bible : 
 
 "Within this simple volume lies 
 The mystery of mysteries ! 
 Happiest they of human race 
 To whom God has given grace 
 To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
 To lift the latch, to force the way. 
 And better had they ne'er been born 
 Who read to doubt, or read to scorn." 
 
 It is the boast of Higher Critics that they are 
 building men up in the faith, increasing their 
 confidence in the Word, and so on. Where? 
 When? Who? It is said there was a lawyer in 
 the early days of the Indian Territory, named 
 Mullins, who practiced in the minor courts and 
 who made a great reputation for his ornate lan- 
 guage. He was engaged in defending a man 
 charged with hog-stealing one day, and, when it 
 came time to sum up, he arose and assumed a 
 portentous attitude before the jury: "If your 
 Honor please," he said, "and gentlemen of the 
 jury: I would not, for a moment, mutilate the 
 majesty of the law nor contravene the avoirdu-
 
 2O2 THF, FINALITY OF 
 
 pois of the testimony. But, and I speak advised- 
 ly, I want you homogeneous men on the jury to 
 focalize your five senses on the proposition I am 
 about to present to you. 'In all criminal cases 
 there are three essential elements: the locus in 
 quo, the modus operandi and the corpus delicti. 
 In this case I think I am safe in saying the corpus 
 delicti and the modus operandi are all right, but, 
 gentlemen, there is an entire absence of the locus 
 in quo." That is the difficulty with Higher Crit- 
 icism. Where and when did they ever do less 
 than destroy the faith of their fellows ? Look at 
 Germany ! It is an answer to my question. Look 
 at Scotland! You will see the question being 
 answered at this moment. Even godless Goethe 
 was wiser than the followers of his own philoso- 
 phy, for he said, "If you have convictions, give 
 them to me; if you have doubts, keep them to 
 yourself ; I have doubts enough of my own." 
 
 . He has cleared the path for moral perversion. 
 "Shun profane babblings: for they will proceed 
 further in ungodliness, and their word will eat 
 as doth gangrene." One of the most definite rea- 
 sons for the prevalence of present-day gilded vice 
 is in the loss of faith on the part of the people. 
 Our infidel teachers have brought them to doubt 
 whether there be a personal God in the heavens, 
 whether sin is regarded of Him, whether judg-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 2O3 
 
 ment is certain and whether hell is a reality, and 
 the result is not only impenitence but moral pande- 
 monium. In the old day when our fathers stood 
 in the pulpits and in burning words declared "It 
 is appointed unto men once to die, and after that 
 the judgment," their auditors believed them and 
 believed God. Penitence resulted; pentecosts 
 came to pass ; regeneration was produced and re- 
 form was witnessed. But where now do you find 
 a man weeping over his sins? And when did 
 any new theologian bring his auditors to alarm 
 like that which smote the hearers of President 
 Edwards, lest they had walked so long in the 
 evil way that their feet were on the brink of hell ? 
 When Jonah preached "Judgment" ia the streets 
 of sin-besotted Ninevah, prince and peasant alike 
 repented and reformed ! But a more unalarming 
 proclamation has never reached the ears of men 
 than that which is phrased in the so-called "New 
 Theology." When its sermons are finished sinners 
 applaud the opinions expressed and "proceed 
 further in ungodliness." 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE STEADFAST. 
 
 "Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, 
 having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that 
 are his : and, Let every one that nameth the name 
 of the Lord depart from unrighteousness."
 
 204 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 That philosophy has three features: 
 
 The first is, an inspired Book. "The firm 
 foundation of God" is found in that "all Scripture 
 is God-breathed." The law of Moses is a living 
 law. The Song of David is an inspired song. 
 The Gospels of the four writers are a revelation 
 of grace. The Word of the Lord is an end of 
 controversy. The sentences of the Bible are both 
 ancient and modern. Like the sun, it is a long 
 time since they found expression, but their shining 
 is dimmed in nothing. A Hindoo convert, who 
 had carried one Bible until it was worn out, spoke 
 of it as "ancient," and then corrected himself, "I 
 beg pardon, the cover and paper are ancient, but 
 its truths are ever new." 
 
 The steadfast have an assured acceptance. 
 "The Lord knoweth them that are his." The 
 names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 
 His promise is, "I shall lose not a one." And of 
 the Father he declared, "No man shall pluck thorn 
 out of his hand." No wonder Isaac Watts wrote : 
 
 "Firm as the earth thy gospel stands, 
 My Lord, my hope, my trust; 
 If I am found in Jesus' hands, 
 My soul can ne'er be lost
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 2O$ 
 
 His honor is engaged to save 
 
 The meanest of his sheep; 
 
 All whom his heavenly Father gave, 
 
 His hands securely keep. 
 
 Nor death nor hell shall e'er remove 
 
 His favorites from his breast; 
 
 Within the bosom of his love 
 
 They must forever rest." 
 
 But the third feature of this steadfast philoso- 
 phy is an irreproachable conduct. . "Let every one 
 that nameth the name of the Lord depart from 
 unrighteousness." When all is said that ought to 
 be said in defense of the Old Book against every 
 critic, it remains a fact that the world will never 
 be won by argument. Contend for the faith we 
 should; but its incarnation in our lives is our 
 best contention. A young man was asked what 
 translation of the Bible he liked best, and he an- 
 swered, "My mother's translation " Whatever 
 men may do with the written epistles of Paul, 
 John, Peter, or James, when they come into con- 
 tact with those living epistles of Jesus Christ 
 consistent Christian men and women who live 
 unselfishly, who devote time to intelligent Scrip- 
 ture research, and who keep themselves unspotted 
 from the world, then they will be most profoundly 
 impressed. No argument can stand against "the 
 Word" incarnate !
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WHAT WILL BE THE RELIGION OF THE 
 FUTURE? 
 
 "Other foundation can no man lay than that 
 which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any 
 man build upon the foundation, gold, silver, cost- 
 ly stones, wood, hay, stubble, each man's work 
 shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare 
 it, because it is revealed in fire, and the lire 
 itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it 
 is. If any man's work shall abide which he built 
 thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's 
 work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he 
 himself shall be saved, yet so as through rire." 
 (i Cor. 3 .-10-15). Schweinfurth's pretentions per- 
 ished some years since; Sanford is now seldom 
 heard of ; Dowie is dead ; Mrs. Eddy either dead 
 or alive ; and the advocates of the doctrine "Mat- 
 ter is no part of the reality of existence" are in 
 court to keep their unreal hands upon their unreal 
 dollars. And yet, of the making of new religions, 
 there is no end. A Cornell University professor, 
 who is not even religious, has lately outlined the 
 coming religion. R. J. Campbell is engaged in a
 
 208 THE FINAUTY OP 
 
 campaign for "The Coming Religion for Eng- 
 land." Foster has taken out a patent on "The 
 Plans for Future Faith," and sells each copy of it 
 at $4.20 net. It would not be cheap at half that 
 price. It would seem worth while for those of 
 us who are without a personal axe to grind in 
 the propagation of a new faith, to calmly con- 
 sider the "Coming Religion," and candidly in- 
 quire what it will be like, and what is to be our 
 attitude toward the same. 
 
 In investigating the claims of movements, 
 modern and ancient, some of us are convinced 
 that Paul, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, 
 carefully delineated the Coming Religion, describ- 
 ing its foundation, defining its frame, and de- 
 picting its finial. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE COMING RELIGION. 
 
 "Other foundation can no man lay than that 
 whilh is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The religion 
 which is destined to dominate the future will re- 
 tain Christ for its foundation: Christ, as the 
 eternal Son of God, Christ as the sinner's substi- 
 tute and Christ as the solitary Head of the 
 Church. 
 
 Christ as the eternal Son of God. At this 
 present moment the real conflict in the theological 
 world rages about the question of Christ. A few
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 2OO, 
 
 years since the good natured Conservatives, who 
 deplored any debate, were saying, "Whatever the 
 Critics take from us, Christ will remain." And 
 even the Critics themselves were then conceding 
 that Christ could not be touched. Within very re- 
 cent years, however, scores if not hundreds of 
 preachers have risen up to deny the immaculate 
 conception of Jesus, His physical resurrection 
 from the grave, and His ascension to the right 
 hand of God, thereby reducing Him to the level of 
 a mortal man. Some of them reach this conclusion 
 by disputing the authority of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures ; others by the adoption of the evolutionary 
 theory, and one of the latest, by claiming that 
 Christ appeared to him in person and confessed 
 that He was nothing more than the son of Jo- 
 seph. 
 
 But these are not new movements. The deity 
 of Jesus was disputed by Scribe and Pharisee, ex- 
 plained away by Greek Gnostics, and even derided 
 by the Rationalists of John's day. And yet, the 
 conviction that He was none other than the Son 
 of God has grown, until, beginning with a solitary 
 disciple, it has made conquest of hundreds, thous- 
 ands, and even of millions of men. The evidence 
 which convinced an uncultured Roman soldier has 
 conquered the logical mind of a Gladstone, and 
 excited the uncompromising testimony of a Web-
 
 2IO THE FINALITY OF 
 
 ster. This biggest-brained statesman says con- 
 cerning Jesus, "Every act of His pure and holy 
 life shows that He was the author of truth, the 
 advocate of truth, and the uncompromising suf- 
 ferer for truth Christ was what he professed 
 
 to be." In some quarters people have questioned 
 whether Tennyson, in his Universalism, made 
 Christ the foundation of all ; but listen, while he 
 sings, "What the sun is to that flower Jesus Christ 
 is to my soul." The religion of the future, if it 
 dominate the world, and do men good, will retain 
 as fundamental, Christ the eternal Son of God. 
 
 And, Christ as the sinner's substitute. This 
 notion is now inveighed against in some pulpits. 
 Men professing to be abreast of the times, have 
 repudiated the blood, "without the shedding of 
 which there is no remission." To such an extent 
 has this defection from Scriptural teaching oc- 
 curred that Dr. Augustus H. Strong, on the oc- 
 casion of his seventieth birthday, sent a message 
 to the students of Rochester Theological Sem- 
 inary, saying, "I am distressed by some of the 
 common theological tendencies of our times, be- 
 cause I believe them to be false to both science 
 and religion. How men who have ever felt them- 
 selves to be lost sinners, and who have once re- 
 ceived pardon from their crucified Lord, and 
 Saviour, can thereafter seek to tear down his
 
 TH E H IGH ER CRITICISM . 211 
 
 attributes, deny His deity and atonement, tear 
 from His brow the crown of miracle and sover- 
 eignty, relegate Him to the place of a merely mor- 
 al teacher who influences us only as does Socrates 
 by words spoken across a stretch of ages, passes 
 my comprehension." 
 
 Certain pulpit orators, whose audiences are 
 scarcely an inspiration, are saying, "The religion 
 of the future will be ethical," as if the old doc- 
 trine of Christ, the sinner's substitute, was not 
 so. To this Campbell Morgan has well answered, 
 "If the great movements under Wesley, Whitfield, 
 Finney, Moody, were not ethical, what were they ? 
 They were movements that took hold of vast 
 masses of men and moved them out of back streets 
 into front ones. And if that was not ethical sure- 
 ly nothing can be ! Beginning with the regenera- 
 tion of a man, they changed his environment, and 
 made him a citizen of whom any city might have 
 been proud. That is the true ethical note." 
 
 It is a fact which history abundantly illustrates 
 that human progress is by way of human suffer- 
 ing. Some man must perish for the sins of the 
 people. The work of Jesus Christ in this matter 
 is 'not unique, extraneous, or unnnatural; it was 
 only extensive, effective, sufficient. If Nathan 
 Hale could serve his country by his death why 
 could not Jesus Christ save one of His little
 
 212 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 worlds by laying down His life in its behalf, so 
 that stricken sinners, looking upon Him, might 
 yet hope, remembering the words of Isaiah, 
 "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our 
 sorrows. He was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chas- 
 tisement of our peace wa -. upon him, and with his 
 stripes we are healed." The coming religion will 
 hold as fundamental Christ, the sinner's substi- 
 tute! 
 
 Christ as the solitary Head of the Church! 
 In times past that position has been disputed by 
 the kings of countries characterized by establish- 
 ed churches, by the Popes of Romanism ; and to- 
 day such aspirants for office as Mrs. Eddy pro- 
 pose to share it with Him. But it is written, "He 
 is the head of the Church," and some millenniums 
 ago it was prophesied, "He shall have dominion 
 also from sea to sea ; and from the river unto the 
 ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilder- 
 ness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall 
 lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and the 
 isles shall render tribute : the kings of Sheba and 
 Seba shall offer gifts, Yea, all the kings shall fall 
 down before him ; all nations shall serve him." 
 
 Sometime since, in Superior, I listened to Dr. 
 J. Wilbur Chapman speak on "The New Song." 
 He referred to the time when, in Cincinnati, the
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 213 
 
 great chorus of the May Festival of music, ap- 
 peared, with Patti as soprano, Carey as alto, 
 Theodore Toedt as tenor, Whitney as bass. Just 
 before the Hallelujah chorus there was a death- 
 like stillness over all the throng; then suddenly 
 Whitney sang, "He shall reign forever and ever," 
 and Carey lifted it a little higher; "For He shall 
 reign forever and ever," the tenor carried it 
 almost to the sky, "For He shall reign for ever 
 and ever." Then the sopranos, as if they were 
 inspired, sang, "King of Kings and Lord of 
 Lords." And then, as if the angels were there 
 with their questionings, "How long shall He 
 reign?" With one accord they made reply, "For- 
 ever and ever ; forever and ever." Then, shouting 
 as the voice of one man, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, 
 Hallelujah." 
 
 The coming religion will put the crown of 
 authority on the same brow that once wore the 
 crown of thorns, and Christ shall be all and 
 over all! "Other foundation can no man lay 
 than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
 
 But having begun with the figure of a build- 
 ing, Paul continues after the same manner. Per- 
 mit us, therefore, some remarks concerning
 
 214 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 THE FRAME OF THE COMING RELIGION. 
 
 The design of it is already in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. When Moses was about to make the tab- 
 ernacle, the Lord revealed to him the pattern, 
 including the ark, the altar, and every part of it, 
 from the remotest limits of the outer court, to 
 the sacred holy of holies, and then enjoined, "See 
 thou make it according to the pattern shown to 
 thee in the mount." Those who propose to frame 
 the religion of the future must climb God's holy 
 hill, and attend again and again upon what God 
 has spoken, and they will find not one point of 
 human experience without provision; not one 
 need of body, soul or spirit left in neglect. It 
 is all in the Word! 
 
 It may be safely asserted that up to the pres- 
 ent there is no other such formula of intelligent 
 faith or basis of beautiful conduct, as that re- 
 vealed in the old Book. The man who proposes 
 to put that aside and work out his destiny with- 
 out the assistance of design, will probably discov- 
 er in crookedness the characteristics of results. 
 His creed will be chaotic and his conduct 
 Quixotic. 
 
 The material must come from human service. 
 When you have a good foundation and a well 
 designed frame you have not a house. It is no
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 215 
 
 shield against the wind, no shelter against the 
 storm, no shade against the sun. That frame- 
 work must be filled in. Paul anticipates this, 
 and talks of our building either with the stable 
 material of "gold, silver, costly stones," or the 
 ephemeral stock of "wood, hay and stubble," de- 
 claring "each man's work shall be made manifest, 
 for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed 
 in fire. And the fire itself shall prove each man's 
 work of what sort it is." 
 
 There are two classes of religionists in the 
 world, the one made up of people who hold that 
 creed is conduct, believing that if they accept 
 the Bible as inspired from cover to cover they 
 may then "sit and sing themselves away to ever- 
 lasting bliss," and God will be well satisfied with 
 them. The other class believes that conduct is 
 creed ; if you only behave decently it doesn't make 
 much difference what opinions you entertain or 
 propagate. Both are wrong! "As a man think- 
 eth in his heart so is he." A dead creed, how- 
 ever true, is worth nothing; a living creed, if 
 true, will express itself in approved conduct. The 
 true apostle of Jesus says, "I by my works show 
 thee my faith." 
 
 The country is full of people who have joined 
 the church, been baptized, and count their re- 
 ligious life complete. At Hull, England, a man
 
 2l6 THE FINALITY OP 
 
 went to Campbell Morgan and said, "Do you 
 know, the strangest thing has happened to me?" 
 "What?" said Morgan. "Well, I am a cabinet- 
 maker, and I work at a bench, and another man 
 works by my side. He has worked by my sids 
 for five years. I thought I would like to get him 
 to come to some of these meetings, and this morn- 
 ing I summoned up my courage and said to him, 
 'Charlie, I want you to come along tonight to 
 some meetings we are having down in Wilber* 
 force Hall.' He looked at me and said, 'You 
 don't mean to say you are a Christian ?' and I an- 
 swered, 'Yes, I am.' 'Well,' he said, 'so am I.' 
 Wasn't it funny?" he remarked. "Funny," said 
 Campbell. "Is he here? If so, you both want 
 to get down and start again, you were never re- 
 generated." I believe Campbell was right. The 
 coming religion will never be advanced by 
 the man who "has a name to live but is dead," 
 who says he belongs to Christ but presents Him 
 with no service. I do not know but the churches 
 of this country ought to enter upon a campaign 
 of discipline, and demand of their membership 
 either a response to the call of God, or a retire- 
 ment from the church of God. 
 
 Len Broughton tells the story of an old judge 
 in the mountains of Georgia, characterized by his 
 ignorance of law, "but abundance of common
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 
 
 sense. Coming into court one morning he found 
 a witness seated in the witness chair with a shawl 
 around him. "You, here to bear testimony?" 
 "Yes." "Put up your right hand." "Judge, my 
 right hand is paralized." "Hold up your left hand 
 then." "The left arm is off." In a spirit of semi- 
 exasperation, he shouted, "Stick up your foot." 
 But the witness answered, "Got them both shot 
 off in the late war." "Then stand on your head, 
 you have got to put up something in this court !" 
 Some stand for the "faith once delivered to the 
 saints," believe the old Book is inspired from cov- 
 er to cover, and that its statements are scientific. 
 But solemnly, it does not matter how orthodox 
 a man is, if he has nothing to put up in proof of 
 the feith that is in him he is a parasite on the 
 ecclesiastical body, and can only retard the coming 
 of true religion. 
 
 The Master Builder is the Holy Spirit. Of 
 Him Jesus said, "When he is come he will guide 
 you into all truth." In building, it is essential to 
 have a leader ; a man who combines in one, direc- 
 tor and commander. Laggards don't like it. Ear- 
 nest workmen understand its advantages and 
 gladly acknowledge the supremacy and receive 
 suggestions. Sometimes you will find the master- 
 builder not only a director but a dynamo ; he has 
 power in himself and he knows how to impart
 
 218 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 energy to other people. The Spirit of God is such 
 a director. The church that works under His 
 guidance will neither be crooked nor incompetent. 
 Dr. Gordon says he used to be impressed to see 
 signs as he walked the streets of Boston, which 
 read, "Room for rent, with or without power." 
 The Church of God cannot afford the latter ; and 
 it need not, since the Spirit stands ready to ad- 
 minister its affairs. 
 
 The individual need not be without power, 
 since the same Spirit is willing to descend upon 
 him and upon her. If you are a clerk in the shop, 
 the Comforter will come there, if you will concede 
 His right and surrender to His reign. If you are 
 the manager of a great corporation He will solve 
 the difficult questions, and show you how to make 
 both your cash and your character tell for Christ. 
 If your are a mother in the home, oppressed by 
 a thousand cares, He will teach you patience, aid 
 you in perseverence, and enrich you with the 
 results. A young man said, 'My mother never 
 made much ado about religion, but as sure as you 
 live she had it. There was something in her life 
 that followed me after she was gone until I was 
 constrained to give my heart to God." Let me 
 affirm it as a fact that in the coming religion men 
 will not be left to themselves to choose their 
 course, think out the proper conduct and build
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 
 
 up the proper character. The Spirit of God will 
 administer, and men will marvel at what He has 
 wrought through those who are truly the Lord's 
 own. 
 
 The builders have a term which is seldom used 
 in every-day speech ; it is "the finial" "An orna- 
 ment at the apex of a spire, pinnacle, or the like ; 
 a common form in pointed architecture is that 
 of a bud about to open." How the idea fits the 
 apostle's speech, "If any man's work shall abide 
 which he has built thereon he shall receive a re- 
 ward." 
 
 THE FINIAL OF THE COMING RELIGION. 
 
 What is in that bud ? What is the purpose of 
 it, and what is the promise? 
 
 Surely, the holiness of the individual. Paul, 
 in his Epistle to the Ephesians, said, of Christ, 
 "He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, 
 and some evangelists, and some pastors and 
 teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, unto the 
 work of ministering, unto the building up of the 
 body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity 
 of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son 
 of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure 
 of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Eph. 
 4:11-13). That is the meaning of Christ's phrase, 
 "Therefore be ye perfect even as I am perfect "
 
 22O THE FINALITY OF 
 
 It refers, not alone to the development of powers, 
 but to separateness from sin. A whole life is 
 also a holy life; hence Christ's command, "Be 
 ye holy." 
 
 Compromise with the devil will never make 
 a conquering church ; and the professed Christ- 
 ian who does not keep himself unspotted from 
 the world will make no contribution to the coming 
 religion. 
 
 Certainly, the happiness of the earth. That 
 is another feature of the finial of the coming re- 
 ligion. True religion is not self-seeking ; it is sac- 
 rificial. It does not even so much concern itself 
 with personal ecstacy as it does with the happi- 
 ness of the people. The evidence of Abraham's 
 beautiful character is in the pledge God made 
 him, "In thee shall all the nations of the earth be 
 blessed." The statement that forever ends all 
 quibble concerning Paul's conversion is his cry 
 over unregenerate Israel "I could wish that I my- 
 self were anathema from Christ, for my breth- 
 ren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.'' 
 The words of Jesus, as He overlooked Jerusalem, 
 were abundant testimony of His sonship, "Oh 
 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that stonest the 
 prophets, and killest them that are sent unto thee, 
 how often would I have gathered thy children to-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 221 
 
 gether, as a hen gathers her chickens under her 
 wings, but ye would not!" 
 
 More men profess to be Christ's than show 
 any concern for His cause. After consenting to 
 its supreme importance, we let Edison shame us 
 at the point of diligence. Archimedes, we are 
 told, was so absorbed in a problem which he 
 traced upon the sand, that he didn't know of the 
 fall of Syracuse. When he saw a Roman 
 sword drawn on him, he raised his eyes to 
 cry, "Hold your hands a little; only spare my 
 life until I have solved this problem." Beloved, 
 ours is a greater problem the problem of hu- 
 man happiness, human honor, human redemp- 
 tion. And if the coming religion is to find a 
 finial worthy of it, those of us who name Jesus 
 must give ourselves diligently to the solution of 
 the same. 
 
 Finally, that finial involves . a home in heaven. 
 A Cornell Professor says that "the coming re- 
 ligion will deal in no future! It will address it- 
 self to present problems." But you take eternity 
 from the views of men and you destroy their in- 
 terest in the things of time. Beasts think; their 
 reasoning powers are capable of some cultiva- 
 tion, but they are without hope for the future, and 
 their aspirations never rise above the expression 
 of utter selfishness. Their whole world is one
 
 222 THE FINALITY OF 
 
 in which every individual is for himself, and 
 the devil gets the hindermost. Thank God, the 
 religion of the future, like the true religion of the 
 past, will present another prospect, will hold 
 out another promise. Jesus has voiced it, "In my 
 Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not 
 so I would have told you, for I go to prepare 
 a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place 
 for you I will come again and receive you unto 
 myself, that where I am there ye may be also." 
 
 Do you remember how in "Marble Faun" 
 Hawthorne presents Donatello and Miriam as 
 wandering aimlessly along a street at the end of 
 which stood Hilda's tower? He says "There 
 was a light in her high chamber; a light too, at 
 the Virgin's shrine. And the glimmer of these 
 two was the loftiest light beneath the stars. 
 Miriam drew Danatello's arm to make him stop. 
 And while they stood at some distance, looking 
 at Hilda's window, they beheld her approach and 
 throw it open. She leaned far forth and extend- 
 ed her clasped hands towards the sky. "The 
 good, pure, child! She is praying, Donatello," 
 said Miriam, with a kind of simple joy at witness- 
 ing the devoutness of her friend. Then her own 
 sin rushed upon her, and she shouted, with the 
 rich strength of her voice, "Pray for us, Hilda; 
 we need it !" Whether Hilda heard and recogniz-
 
 THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 223 
 
 ed the voice we cannot tell. The window was im- 
 mediately closed, and her form disappeared from 
 behind the snowy curtain. Miriam felt this to be 
 a token that the cry of her condemned spirit was 
 shut out of heaven. Without hope of it she felt 
 her life to be not worth the living. No religion 
 which despises Heaven will ever command the 
 deep interest in men. In the future, as in the 
 past, that synonym of all conceivable happiness 
 Heaven will hold to itself all pure hearts and all 
 righteous hopes. The angels must pity the man, 
 and, even with strong crying and tears, commiser- 
 ate the woman who misses it !
 
 " 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 IOOM 11/86 Series 9482
 
 3 1205 00876 2468 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL UBRARY AC L TV 
 
 III Ml III I ii "" " " "" 
 
 A 001 004 777 7